French researcher Laurent Vinatier freed in swap for Russian basketball player

Laurent Vinatier, a French researcher detained in Russia since 2024, was freed on Thursday in exchange for the release of Daniil Kasatkin, a Russian professional basketball player, French and Russian officials said. Kasatkin had been detained in France on suspicion of negotiating payments for a ransomware ring that hacked around 900 companies and two U.S.

government entities, and American officials had sought his extradition to the United States, French law enforcement officials said. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Justice Department declined to answer whether France had told the United States it planned to release Kasatkin. Vinatier had worked as a consultant at the Switzerland-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue and was arrested in June 2024; a Russian court sentenced him in 2024 to three years in prison for collecting information about the Russian military as an unregistered foreign agent.

The swap was described as a rare example of bilateral dealings between France and Russia since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Paris-based lawyer Frédéric Bélot, who represented both men, said he was “delighted” that they had been freed.

Key Topics

World, Laurent Vinatier, Daniil Kasatkin, Russia, France, Ransomware Ring