Venezuela’s government says it has deported a close ally of Nicolás Maduro to face judicial proceedings in the U.S. less than three years after the business owner was pardoned by President Joe Biden as part of a prisoner swap. The Venezuelan government in a statement Saturday did not explicitly say where it had deported Alex Saab but said its decision was based on several ongoing criminal investigations in the U.S. The Associated Press reported in February that federal prosecutors have been digging for month into Saab’s role in an alleged bribery conspiracy involving Venezuelan government contracts to import food.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a two-day trip to Beijing next week, the Kremlin says. The announcement comes less than 24 hours after U.S. President Donald Trump finished his own state visit to China, where he also met Xi to discuss trade and the U.S. and Israel’s war in Iran. Relations between China and Russia have deepened in recent years, particularly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Meanwhile, Ukraine on Saturday repatriated the bodies of fallen soldiers following an earlier exchange with Moscow involving prisoners of war.