“This is a joyous day for Andrey, his wife, and their two young children. After more than three years apart, this family is together again thanks to President Trump," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty President Stephen Capus said in a statement that also thanked Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Lithuanian government.
The news organization said Kuznechyk had been charged with participating in an extremist organization and sentenced to prison but that U.S. officials and press freedom organizations have called him a political prisoner and pressed for his release.
The releases were announced one day after the White House trumpeted a prisoner swap with Russia that brought home American schoolteacher Marc Fogel of Pennsylvania after he was in custody for more than three years.
Trump had foreshadowed the additional news at the White House on Wednesday night by saying another person would be coming home on Wednesday.
“It’s a remarkable victory on the heels of Marc Foley returning to America last night,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters of the releases by Belarus.
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