US Navy Vet Released From Russian Custody

After nearly a year in Russian detention, a U.S. Navy veteran is on his way home.

The welcomed news for Taylor Dudley and his family comes after months of negotiations with Russian authorities spearheaded by former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D).

Russian border police arrested Dudley after the 35-year-old from Lansing, Michigan, crossed the Polish-Russian border and illegally entered Kaliningrad Oblast.

Per CNN:

Dudley's detention – which the US government had not deemed as “wrongful,” or based on arbitrary and discriminatory motivations – had not been widely publicized before Thursday because his family wanted the negotiations for his release to remain private.

The Richardson Center for Global Engagement, a non-profit founded by Richardson, spearheaded the negotiations, family spokesperson Jonathan Franks told CNN. The former governor and diplomat has long worked to free Americans detained abroad, and his center played a role in securing the release of Trevor Reed, a US citizen and former Marine who had been wrongfully detained in Russia, last summer.

No exchange was made on the US side for Dudley, said Mickey Bergman, the center's vice president and executive president.

The Steve Menzies Global Foundation and the US Embassy also helped to secure Dudley's release, Franks said.

U.S. officials are still negotiating for the release of Marine veteran Paul Whelan. Russian authorities arrested Whelan in 2018 on charges of espionage. Whelan, now 52, was sentenced to 16 years in a labor camp. President Biden called his charges “totally illegitimate.”

Neither the Trump nor the Biden administration has secured Whelan's release.

Whelan's twin brother David celebrated the release of Brittney Griner last month, saying the White House made the right deal “rather than waiting for one that wasn't going to happen” — a reference to his brother's predicament.

American Liberty News' Paul Crespo noted after Griner's release that the Whelan family hasn't always been so gracious to the current administration:

But as the Detroit Free Press reports, this wasn't the message the Whelan's were sending a few months ago when the U.S. negotiated the release of Trevor Reed, another American wrongfully detained in Russia, in exchange for Russian drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko.

At the time, Whelan's brother David asked: “Is President (Joe) Biden's failure to bring Paul home an admission that some cases are too hard to solve? Is the administration's piecemeal approach picking low-hanging fruit? And how does a family know that their loved one's case is too difficult, a hostage too far out of reach?”

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