PARIS: Russia is freeing French researcher Laurent Vinatier in a prisoner swap deal after he spent more than a year in prison for failing to register as a “foreign agent”. Vinatier’s release is in exchange for Russian basketball player Daniil Kasatkin, who has been imprisoned in France since last June at the request of the US over a hacking charge. The release of Vinatier, 49, and Kasatkin, 26, follows recent prisoner swaps between Russia and the West. August 2024 saw the largest exchange since the Cold War era, with 24 people freed. Russia’s state-owned news agency RIA reports that Vinatier had been pardoned by President Vladimir Putin. DNA
