US citizen Joseph Tater has left Russia after being detained in Moscow last August on charges of abusing staff at a hotel -- which he denied -- and subsequently moved to a psychiatric clinic, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported.
Tater was detained in Moscow on August 12, 2024, on a "petty hooliganism" charge and handed a 15-day jail sentence. His detention was then extended as Russia's Investigative Committee launched a probe into a more serious charge of using violence against a police officer.
On April 6, a court ordered Tater be removed from pretrial detention and sent for compulsory psychiatric treatment. The court, according to state media, said he was not criminally responsible for his actions after he was diagnosed with a mental disorder.
According to TASS, Tater was discharged from the psychiatric clinic on June 6.
Unnamed medical sources told TASS the clinic had no reason to keep Tater and released him for outpatient treatment.
TASS said Tater was no longer in Russia but that his current whereabouts where unclear.
There was no immediate comment by either the US Embassy in Moscow or the State Department in Washington.
Earlier, Reuters cited a Kremlin source saying Tater was one of the nine Americans being held in Russia that the United States wanted returned in a prisoner exchange.
The information came after Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said such an exchange was discussed by US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in their phone call on May 20.
Washington and Moscow have already conducted two prisoner swaps since Trump took office in January.
In April, Russian-American citizen Ksenia Karelina, who was imprisoned in Russia for donating $51 to a US-based Ukrainian aid charity, was freed by Russia in exchange for Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen who allegedly exported sensitive microelectronics.
Earlier, in February, the United States released confessed Russian cybercriminal Aleksandr Vinnik in exchange for the American teacher Marc Fogel.
