Inside the Trevor Reed deal: From Oval Office to Moscow trip

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — A series of factors helped pave the way for Trevor Reed’s release from a Russian prison this week as part of a prisoner exchange. They include escalating concerns over Reed’s health, a private Oval Office meeting between his parents and President Joe Biden and a secretive Moscow trip by a former diplomat on the cusp of Russia’s war with Ukraine. U.S. officials stressed that the negotiations for Reed’s release were narrow in scope, focused squarely on the prisoners and not on Russia’s war. But while the timing of the deal was startling, it’s also clear that the groundwork for it had been laid before the conflict had begun.