TALLINN, Estonia – One of them was a journalist on reporting trip. Another was attending a wedding. Still another was a dual national who was returning to visit his family.
All are US citizens and are now behind bars in Russia on various charges.
Arrests of Americans in Russia are increasingly common with relationships sinking to Cold War lows. Washington accuses Moscow of using US citizens as bargaining chips, but Russia insists they all broke the law.
Although high-profile prisoner exchanges have occurred, the prospects for exchanges are unclear.
“It seems that since Moscow itself has cut off most of the communication channels and does not know how to properly restore them without losing face, they are trying to use the hostages. … At least that’s what it seems,” said Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who resigned after Moscow invaded Ukraine in 2022.
EVAN GERSHKOVICH – The 32-year-old The Wall Street Journal reporter faces trial Wednesday on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government deny. He was detained in March 2023 while reporting in the city of Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage. Russia alleges that Gershkovich was “gathering classified information” at the request of the CIA about a facility that produces and repairs military equipment. He provided no evidence to support the accusations.
PAUL WHELAN – The 54-year-old corporate security executive from Michigan was arrested in 2018 in Moscow, where he was attending a friend’s wedding, convicted two years later of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison. He maintains his innocence, saying the charges were made up.
TRAVIS LEAK – The musician was arrested in 2023 on drug charges. An Instagram page describes him as the lead singer of the band Lovi Noch (Seize the Night). Court officials said he is a former paratrooper.
MARC FOGEL — The Moscow professor was sentenced to 14 years in prison, also on drug charges. The Interfax news agency said Fogel taught at the Anglo-American School in Moscow and worked at the US Embassy. Interfax cited judicial authorities as saying that Fogel admitted guilt.
GORDÃO BLACK – The 34-year-old sergeant stationed at Fort Cavazos, Texas, was convicted on June 19 in Vladivostok of robbing and making threats against his girlfriend, and was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison. He had flown to Russia from his U.S. military post in South Korea without authorization and was arrested in May after she accused him of stealing from her, according to U.S. and Russian officials.
ROBERTO WOODLAND – Woodland, with dual nationality, is on trial in Moscow on drug trafficking charges. Russian media reported that his name matches that of an American citizen interviewed in 2020, who said he was born in the Perm region in 1991 and adopted by an American couple at age 2. Show. Woodland was charged with drug trafficking as part of an organized group – punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
ALSU KURMASHEVA – Kurmasheva, with dual US and Russian nationality, was arrested in 2023 in her hometown of Kazan. The Prague-based publisher of the US government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Tatar-Bashkir service was visiting her sick mother. She faces multiple charges, including failing to declare herself a “foreign agent” and spreading false information about the Russian military.
KSENIA KHAVANA — Khavana, 33, was arrested in Yekaterinburg in February on charges of treason, accused of raising money for the Ukrainian military. Russian independent media outlet Mediazona identified her by her maiden name, Karelina, and said she had US citizenship after marrying an American. She returned to Russia from Los Angeles to visit family. Human rights group Pervy Otdel said the charges stem from a $51 donation to a US charity helping Ukraine.
DAVID BARNES – An engineer from Texas, Barnes was arrested while visiting his children in Russia, where their mother had taken them. His supporters say the woman made unsubstantiated allegations of sexual abuse that had previously been discredited by Texas investigators, but he was convicted in Russia anyway and sentenced to prison.
Gershkovich and Whelan received more attention, with the State Department designating both as unjustly detained. The designation only applies to a small subset of Americans imprisoned in foreign countries.
Those cases go to a State Department special envoy for hostage affairs, who tries to negotiate their release. They must meet certain criteria, including a determination that the arrest occurred solely because the person is a U.S. citizen or is part of an effort to influence U.S. policy or extract concessions from the government.
The US successfully traded swaps in 2022 to WNBA star Brittney Griner It is Navy Veteran Trevor Reed — both designated as unjustly detained. Moscow got it arms dealer Viktor Boutwho was serving a 25-year sentence, and pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was serving a 20-year sentence for cocaine trafficking.
It is unclear how many Americans are trapped in Russia or whether negotiations are underway for them.
Kurmasheva’s husband, Pavel Butorin, told the Associated Press after his arrest he expected the U.S. government to use “all available avenues and means” to obtain her release, including designating her as unjustly detained.
In December, the State Department said it made a significant offer for Gershkovich and Whelan, but Russia rejected it.
Officials did not provide details, although Russia is said to be seeking Vadim Krasikovserving a life sentence in Germany in 2021 for the murder of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a Georgian citizen of Chechen descent who fought against Russian troops in Chechnya and later sought asylum in Germany.
President Vladimir Putin, asked about Gershkovich’s releaseappeared to refer to Krasikov by pointing to a man arrested by a US ally for “liquidating a bandit” who allegedly killed Russian soldiers in Chechnya.
Furthermore, Russia remained silent. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says such exchanges “must be carried out in absolute silence.”
Historically, when relations are better, “exchanges seem to be smoother,” said Nina Khrushcheva, professor of international affairs at the New School in New York and great-granddaughter of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.
She cited prisoner exchanges between the USSR and Chile in the 1970s, as well as those with the US and Germany shortly after Mikhail Gorbachev’s inauguration in the 1980s, involving dissidents Vladimir Bukovsky and Natan Sharansky.
Ultimately, the decision “is solely in Putin’s hands,” Khrushcheva said.
In Gershkovich’s case, a trade could also involve concessions, possibly related to Ukraine, said Sam Greene of the Center for European Policy Analysis.
“Even if the immediate reason to bring people to the (negotiating) table is Evan and a prisoner swap, this allows them to get straight to the point and say, ‘OK, we have 98% of the deal, but if you really want that If this is done, there’s something else we’d really like to talk about,'” such as sanctions or another Ukraine-related issue, he said.
“The Kremlin is perfectly happy to keep Evan as long as possible. And so the incentive is to get as much as possible for him,” Greene said.
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Tucker reported from Washington.
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