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After spending years in a Russian prison, former marine Trevor Reed landed on US soil in the early hours of Thursday during a prisoner exchange that occurred amid heightened tension between Washington and Moscow.
Mr Reed was released from detention on Wednesday in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko at an airport in Ankara, Turkey.
The exchange was not part of broader talks with Russia and did not change the US approach to Ukraine, the White House said.
Photos of Mr Reed standing with his family and August Pfluger, a US representative from Texas, were shared on Twitter on Thursday.
“This is the moment we have all been praying for. WELCOME HOME, Trevor Reed!” Mr Pfluger wrote.
Mr Reed's parents said earlier that he would be taken to a military hospital for monitoring and senior US officials said the 30-year-old was in “good spirits” despite some health issues.
President Joe Biden said in a statement on Wednesday that he was “delighted” to inform Mr Reed's parents that their son would be freed.
“I heard in the voices of Trevor’s parents how much they’ve worried about his health and missed his presence,” Mr Biden said.
The president told reporters on Wednesday he had raised the issue of Mr Reed's release “three months ago” without providing further details. Mr Reed's parents met the president last month to advocate their son's release.
In 2020, Mr Reed was sentenced by a Russian court to nine years in prison for reportedly attacking police officers while intoxicated. The US called the trial a “theatre of the absurd".
Yaroshenko was arrested by American special forces in Liberia in 2010 for drug trafficking, sent to the US for trial and sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2011.
“The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly,” Mr Biden said.
Mr Reed's release prompted questions over whether it will now be more difficult for the administration to bring home other detained Americans, including Paul Whelan, another ex-marine, and women's basketball star Brittney Griner.
Mr Whelan's family have expressed concern over the prospects for his release now that Yaroshenko, whom Moscow had sought to free since 2019, had been exchanged.
“Why was I left behind?” Mr Whelan asked his parents, according to the family's statement. He is currently being held in a Russian labour camp.
Griner was detained at a Russian airport on February 17 after a search of her luggage reportedly revealed she was carrying several cannabis oil vape cartridges. The Olympic gold medallist faces 10 years in prison if convicted.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters the Biden administration had been in touch with Mr Whelan's and Griner's families “over the course of time”, without providing further details.
Reuters contributed to this report
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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