MOSCOW, Oct 23 (Reuters) – The Kremlin denied on Friday that Russia had released American national Stephen Hubbard from prison in exchange for the recent release of a Russian war blogger detained in Montenegro.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that Hubbard, a 74-year-old US citizen held in Russian custody since 2022, had been freed in what the Kremlin called a humanitarian goodwill gesture.
US President Donald Trump said he had asked Putin to free Hubbard and that Russia had not asked for anything or anyone in return for letting the retired US school teacher return home.
But some of Trump’s domestic opponents have suggested that Hubbard may have been freed in connection with the case of Mikhail Zvinchuk, a high-profile Russian war blogger who was briefly detained in Montenegro earlier this month before being let go.
Asked to comment on that allegation, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters it was false.
“That’s not right,” said Peskov.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Alessandra Prentice Editing by Andrew Osborn )
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