- At least a dozen US citizens are currently held in Russian prisons. Wall Street Journal reporter Ivan Gershkovich is one of the most famous of them.
- Gershkovitch’s trial will begin behind closed doors on June 26.
- Other detainees noted include former US Marine Paul Whelan, Prague-based journalist Alsou Kurmasheva, and active duty US Staff Sergeant Gordon Black.
Russia has imprisoned at least a dozen American citizens, including journalists and active service members.
Below are details about the most prominent Americans currently in custody, why Russia is holding them and what the U.S. is doing to bring them back.
Ivan Gershkovitch
Gershkovitch, a Wall Street Journal reporter accredited by Russia to work there, was arrested in the Ural city of Yekaterinburg in March 2023 on charges of espionage, which carry up to 20 years in prison. The FSB security service says he was collecting secret information about Uralvagonzavod, a battle tank maker.
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Gershkovitch and her newspaper have strongly denied the charges, and the US government has declared her wrongfully detained, meaning it will have to seek ways to secure Gershkovitch’s release.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this month that Washington was taking “strict measures” to secure Gershkovitch’s release but that ongoing talks needed to be kept away from the media.
Gershkovitch, 32, has been held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison since his arrest, and his sentence has been extended several times. A lawsuit is going to be filed The event will begin behind closed doors in Yekaterinburg on June 26.
US Army Staff Sergeant Gordon Black was detained in Russia on May 2 on suspicion of stealing from a woman with whom he was in a relationship. He will now be produced before a court in Vladivostok, Russia on June 6, 2024. (Reuters/Tatiana Meil/File Photo)
Paul Whelan
Whelan, a former US Marine who holds US, UK, Irish and Canadian citizenship, was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage. He denied the charges.
At the time of his arrest, Whelan was the global security chief for a Michigan-based car parts supplier. Russian investigators said he was a spy for military intelligence and was caught red-handed with a computer flash drive containing confidential information.
Whelan, 54, did not figure in a US-Russia prisoner exchange in December 2022 involving American basketball star Brittney Griner, despite speculation she would be swapped for Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout.
The United States has declared Whelan to be wrongfully detained.
Alsou Kurmasheva
Kurmasheva, 47, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Russia, is a Prague-based reporter for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), a U.S. government-funded media outlet that Russia has declared a foreign agent.
In October he was arrested while visiting his elderly mother in the Russian city of Kazan. Authorities initially accused him of failing to register as a foreign agent, but he was later also charged with spreading “falsehoods” about the Russian military, for which he could face up to 15 years in prison.
Kurmasheva’s husband has filed a petition asking the United States to declare her wrongful detention.
Gordon Black
Black, an active duty US staff sergeant based in South Korea, was detained in Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East on May 2 on suspicion of stealing $113 from his Russian girlfriend. He was later accused of grabbing her by the neck and threatening to kill her during an argument.
The Pentagon said Black violated military rules by traveling to Russia via China without permission.
In court on Monday, Black denied threatening to kill his girlfriend, Alexandra Vashchuk, but admitted he was “partially” guilty to the theft charge, according to Russian state media. A detailed statement is expected In the next session on Wednesday.
Robert Gilman
Gilman, a former US Marine, was sentenced in October 2022 to 4-1/2 years in prison for assaulting a police officer on a train while drunk.
Gilman, whose lawyers said he had come to Russia to study, told the court he did not remember the incident but apologized “to Russia” and to the officer.
Ksenia Karelina
Karelina, who holds dual US-Russian citizenship, was detained in February while visiting family in Yekaterinburg on charges of treason and faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.
The FSB security service has accused the Los Angeles resident of collecting money for a Ukrainian organization whose ultimate beneficiary was Ukraine’s military. Her family said she donated about $50 to a New York-based nonprofit that provides non-military aid to Ukraine.
Mark Fogel
Fogel, a former school teacher who previously worked at the US embassy in Moscow, is serving a 14-year sentence for drug trafficking after he was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport in August 2021 with 17 grams of marijuana in his luggage — which he said he used for medical reasons.
At the time of his arrest, Fogel, 60, worked at the now-closed Anglo-American School in Moscow.
Robert Romanov Woodland
Adopted by a US citizen from Russia As a child, Woodland was taken into custody in January on a drug possession charge, which carries up to 20 years in prison.
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A Facebook account in his name showed he was working as an English teacher and living outside Moscow. A date for his trial has not yet been set.
Eugene Spector
Spector, who is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence for bribery, was charged with espionage last August. He was born in Russia and later moved to the United States.
According to state media, before his arrest in 2021, he was chairman of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company specializing in cancer-treatment drugs. Spector had pleaded guilty to helping bribe an assistant to a former Russian deputy prime minister.
