Fears for US marine being detained in Russia after Putin threatened retaliation for Biden calling him a ‘killer’
THERE are fears that a US marine being detained in Russia after Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation in response to Joe Biden calling him a “killer.”
Texas leaders have demanded the release of Trevor Reed, 29, who got nine years in a Russian prison in July for assaulting a police officer after a drunken night out in Moscow.
He allegedly jostled with the officers and caused the police vehicle to swerve but his girlfriend is adamant that the van never swerved, while Reed said he doesn’t remember.
But his parents insist the punishment doesn’t warrant the crime and have called for him to be let out reported KXAN after Putin said “it takes one to know one” when Biden called him a killer.
GOP Texas Congressman August Pfluger, House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul, Senator John Cornyn, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy did a press conference with the distraught Reeds..
“Our son is not guilty,” his dad Joey Reed, said. “It’s a sham from beginning to end.
“Society appears to be normal and progressive and growing,” he added. “[But] beneath it is still apparently this old USSR mentality with the police and the judicial system.”
Joey added: “We’re concerned about the heightened rhetoric between our countries. ‘We’re fearful that this will affect our son in the long term, and we just want to get him home before our two countries get more angry with each other.
“Our peoples are not the enemies; the Russian people are not our enemy. ‘All we asked for from the beginning is that he’d be given at least the same fairness in his trial as regular Russian citizens. And that was not the case.”
Pfluger said “these charges were clearly politically motivated and the entire process was a sham,” Cornyn said “it’s time to bring Trevor home.”
“It’s been nothing short of what I would call cruel,” McCarthy said. “That’s why we are united in a bipartisan, bicameral, to send a very clear message.
“We’ve co-sponsored this in the last congress, but we’re working with the Biden administration. Hopefully, the Russian government will see what is right here, bring him home to us, and to you.”
Reed’s parents are appealing his sentence in Russian courts as US intelligence agencies claim Russia tried to influence the 2020 election in the hope that Donald Trump would win.
The resolutions in Congress demanding the release of Reed and ex-US Marine Paul Whelan, another American, are pending.
US ambassador to Moscow, John Sullivan, has branded the situation a “mockery of justice.”
The news unfolded after Biden was quizzed about the Russian leader, which prompted a chilling response from Putin.
We’re concerned about the heightened rhetoric between our countries.
Joey Reed
The Kremlin has demanded an apology from the US President, who described Putin as soulless and promised he would pay a price for alleged Russian meddling in the 2020 US presidential election.
Russia wants America to say sorry after Biden said he thought Putin was a “killer” – and may retaliate against Washington DC if it fails to apologize, a senior Russian lawmaker warned on Thursday.
“We always see in another person our own qualities and think that he is the same as us,” he said as Russia dramatically recalled its US ambassador back to Moscow on Wednesday.
When asked if Biden believes Putin is a killer during a revealing interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, the president replied: “Mmm hmm, I do.”
Putin has said the Biden’s remarks about him reflect US own past and current problems during a video call with residents of Crimea marking the anniversary of its 2014 annexation from Ukraine.
The Russian leader pointed at America’s past history of slaughtering Native Americans and slavery, arguing that the painful legacy has weighed on the United States.
“Otherwise where would the Black Lives Matter movement come from”, he said.
He said Russia would still cooperate with the United States where it answers Moscows interests and wished BIden “good health” – intensifying the ongoing diplomatic spat.
Tensions had escalated when the Biden administration sanctioned the Russian government in early March over the alleged poisoning attack of Alexei Navalny.
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Sanctions for 14 businesses and another enterprises were targeted, most of which it said were involved in production of biological and chemical agents.
This marked the first of several steps by the Biden administration to respond to a number of destabilizing actions, said one of the administration officials, who briefed reporters on condition they not be identified further.
These are the first against Russia by the Biden administration, which has pledged to confront Putin for alleged attacks on Russian opposition figures and hacking abroad, including of US government agencies and businesses.