The high-profile prisoner exchange was secured just ahead of a phone conversation between the US and Russian leaders this week
Russian crypto businessman and computer programmer Aleksandr Vinnik has returned to Moscow as part of a prisoner exchange deal with Washington, after spending more than seven years in Greek, French and American jails.
Vinnik arrived at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport late Thursday evening, a day after American schoolteacher and former diplomat Marc Fogel, jailed in Russia on drug trafficking charges, returned to American soil.
“I want to say thank you to everyone. First and foremost, to President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. To [Foreign Minister] Sergey Lavrov, our chief diplomat. To all diplomats, all special services, all the people, lawyers, all my relatives and friends, everyone. And especially my family,” Vinnik told RIA Novosti upon his return.
“You can also thank Trump. Without him, it would probably have been difficult,” Vinnik added. Detailing his journey, Vinnik said that he was transported on a special flight from the US to Moscow, with a refueling stop in Poland.
The head of the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs Committee, Leonid Slutsky, has called Vinnik’s return “another victory for Russian diplomacy and all the services and departments involved in the process of his release.”
“Vinnik, like many other Russians, was extradited to the United States… under the notorious ‘extraterritorial’ law and spent almost eight years in prison without actually receiving a court sentence,” the parliamentarian noted.
Vinnik, a computer programmer involved in crypto, was arrested in Greece in 2017. Both Russia and the US, as well as France, had sought his extradition at the time on various charges, including hacking, fraud, and money laundering. In 2020, he was extradited to France, yet ultimately ended up in US custody two years later. He eventually pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit money laundering in May 2024.
In the US, Vinnik stood accused of laundering between $4 billion and $9 billion through the now-defunct BTC-e cryptocurrency exchange platform. In Russia, he had faced similar charges – albeit involving much smaller sums of money – of illegally obtaining around $8 million through “computer information fraud.” Over the years, Vinnik has repeatedly expressed his readiness to face the charges at home rather than anywhere else, citing the desire to stay closer to his family.
“I am already home, with my family. I still don’t believe it,” Vinnik remarked upon reuniting with his family, though he noted that his children were asleep at the time.
Vinnik’s mother shared her emotions with RT, saying she “couldn’t say a word” when she finally saw her son after so many years. “He hasn’t been broken [after prison]. He’s the same, he’s so kind-hearted to people, he hasn’t become bitter,” she added.
