Russia releases French researcher in prisoner exchange 

A French researcher serving a three-year sentence in Russia has been freed in a prisoner exchange with Moscow, French and Russian officials have said.

President Emmanuel Macron announced the release of Laurent Vinatier, who had been jailed for allegedly violating Russia’s so-called “foreign agent” laws, saying that the researcher was “free and back in France.”

“I share the relief of his family and loved ones. My gratitude to our diplomatic agents for their mobilisation”, Macron said on Thursday.

Russia’s FSB security service announced that Vinatier, 49, had been swapped for basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, 26.

Kasatkin was arrested last June at a Paris airport and was wanted by the United States over an alleged involvement in ransomware attacks – an allegation that Kasatkin has previously denied.

The FSB ⁠said Vinatier had been pardoned by President Vladimir Putin, who promised last month to look into the case after a French journalist raised it during the Kremlin leader’s annual news conference.

Vinatier was arrested by the FSB at a Moscow restaurant in June 2024 and convicted four months later of breaking laws requiring individuals deemed to be “foreign agents” to register with the Russian authorities.

While behind bars, he was placed under additional investigation for espionage, and he had been facing a likely further trial in the coming months.

The FSB said that the researcher, acting on instructions from Swiss intelligence, had collected sensitive political and military information, including combat and training plans, that could target Moscow’s security.

However, it said that the case against Vinatier had been dismissed due to his “active repentance.”

Before he was arrested, Vinatier worked for the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss-based conflict mediation organisation, where fellow scholars respected him.

At his trial, the researcher said he loved Russia, apologised for breaking the law, and even recited a verse by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Frederic Belot, a lawyer representing Vinatier, said the decision was a “huge relief”.

“We are extremely happy that he has been released for Orthodox Christmas,” Belot added, who also represents Kasatkin.

Relations between Paris and Moscow have been frosty in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.

While Macron has been outspoken in his support for Kyiv’s military efforts alongside other European allies, including the UK, he has also expressed a willingness to engage with Russia to end the war.

On Thursday, Moscow condemned a security plan agreed by Ukraine and its European allies in the French capital, Paris,  for the deployment of a peacekeeping force as an “axis of war”.

Earlier this week, European leaders and United States envoys announced that the security guarantees for Kyiv would include a US-led monitoring mechanism and a European multinational force, in the event of a ceasefire.

However, Moscow rejected the plan.

“All such units and facilities will be considered legitimate military targets for the Russian Armed Forces,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.