Monday 23 May 2022 01:55 AM Trevor Reed kept in blood-smeared Russian cell and blasts Putin's government as ... trends now

A former U.S. Marine who spent three years in a Russian prison on trumped-up charges has described the government of Vladimir Putin as 'sincerely evil from top to bottom'. 

Trevor Reed, in his first interview since his April 27 release, told CNN's Jake Tapper about the horrific conditions in the prison where he was held, and the farcical circumstances of his arrest.

He had been at a party with his Russian girlfriend of three years, Alina Tsybulnik, a lawyer, in August 2019 when he was arrested for intoxication.

Russian authorities took the former Marine to jail to sober up and he was later sentenced to nine years for assaulting and endangering two police officers' lives - despite, he insisted, never attacking the officers.

'You have this view - kind of like I did when I went there - that Russia, yeah, they have a bad government, but it's like, you know, maybe Putin is evil but like the whole government isn't,' he said.

'And from being there inside, and seeing that government from the inside, how that works, you realize that the problem is actually much bigger than that. 

'They have absolutely no value of human life, and that apathy permeates every level of the Russian government and that trickles down from the very top to the lowest level prison guard inside of their government and all of their police officers, all of their FSB, everyone who works for that government has absolutely no empathy for other humans. They are completely desensitized to that. 

'That government is really sincerely evil at all levels from the top to the bottom, and there is absolutely no reason why any Americans should travel to Russia for anything, everything.' 

He was ultimately freed in a prisoner swap. He and his girlfriend have since broken up.

'Countries like North Korea, Russia now, China, Syria, Iran, Venezuela - countries like that are going to take Americans hostage, no matter what.

'It is our duty to get back Americans.'

Reed is now working to free the other U.S. Marine held in Russia, Paul Whelan.

Whelan, a U.S. citizen and former Marine, was detained at a Moscow hotel in December 2018 and arrested on espionage charges, which he has consistently and vehemently denied. 

He was convicted and sentenced in June 2020 to 16 years in prison in a trial U.S. officials denounced as unfair. 

'I thought Paul was leaving with me,' said Reed.

'The fact is that the United States should have got him out. And we have to get him out, at any cost.' 

Reed was kept in a blood and feces-smeared Russian jail cell with serial killers and rapists.  

'The psychiatric treatment facility, I was in there with seven other prisoners in a cell. They all had severe, psychological health issues,' he told CNN in an exclusive interview. 

'Over 50 percent of them in that cell were in there for murder. Or, like, multiple murders, sexual assault and murder - just really disturbed individuals.' 

Reed went on to say that the cell was 'not a good place' and he 'did not sleep there for a couple of days' because he thought there was a 'possibility' his fellow inmates would kill him. His family worried about his health, as the soldier appeared to frail upon release, but has since seemed to regain his health. 

'I was too worried about who was in the cell with me to actually sleep,' he told CNN. 

'There was blood all over the walls there, where prisoners had killed themselves, or killed other prisoners, or attempted to do that. 

'The toilet's just a hole in the floor. And there's, you know, crap everywhere, all over the floor, on the walls. 

'There's people in there also that walk around that look like zombies.' 

Reed reportedly said he thought he was sent to the psychiatric facility as a punishment for his continued push to appeal his conviction, CNN reported. 

For years, U.S. officials and his family had been working to get the soldier released from the harsh

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