Former US Marine Trevor Reed describes his experience during his detention in a Russian psychiatric institution in an interview broadcast today, in which he describes in detail the miserable conditions that prevailed in the treatment facilities of the seriously ill prisoners.
Reed, who was arrested in Russia in 2019, was released on April 28 in an exchange of detainees that took place amid the most tense relations between Washington and Moscow in recent decades due to the war in Ukraine.
In an excerpt from an interview with CNN, Reed said he was being held with seven other detainees in a cell at a psychiatric ward.
The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately comment on Reed’s interview.
Most of the detainees were incarcerated for violent crimes, including homicides, and were “just people with a disturbed personality,” he said, acknowledging that he feared for his life.
“In that cell, you know, it wasn’t a nice place,” Reed said. “There was blood on all the walls there – where the prisoners had committed suicide, or killed other prisoners or tried to do so.
“The toilets are a hole in the floor. And, you know, there was dirt everywhere, all over the floor, on the walls. “There are people in there who walk and look like zombies.”
Marine Trevor Reed recovering in Texas military hospital after release from Russian jail https://t.co/Xa8Dq1Duyy pic.twitter.com/JsHPqpKYFX
– New York Post (@nypost) April 29, 2022
The former marine told CNN that he believed he had been placed in a psychiatric ward because of his ongoing efforts to appeal his conviction.
Reed, 30, from Texas, was convicted in 2019 on charges of endangering the lives of two police officers while drunk on a visit to Moscow. The U.S. government has described the allegations as political theater.
He said he did not allow himself to believe he would be released from prison. “I did not let myself be hoped for,” he said.
Russian-American relations are at their worst since the end of the Cold War, following Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions on Moscow.
Former Marine Paul Whelan and two-time Olympic gold medalist American basketball player Britney Greener remain in custody in Russia.
Video showing the prisoner swap of Trevor Reed for the Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko on the tarmac in Turkey. pic.twitter.com/ndONolLMRP
– Patrick Reevell (@Reevellp) April 27, 2022
Whelan’s family is calling on the Biden government to press for his case, especially after Reed’s release in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.
“Obviously we need to do more because not everyone agrees that Paul’s release is guaranteed,” Whelan’s brother, David, said in a statement Thursday.
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