Russia keeps Americans in jails as relations between countries plummet

A journalist on a reporting trip in a city in the Ural Mountains. A corporate security executive traveling to Moscow for a wedding. A dual citizen returning to his native Tatarstan to visit his family.

They are all U.S. citizens and are being imprisoned in Russia on charges of varying severity.

Arrests of Americans in Russia have become increasingly common as relations between Russia and Washington reach their lowest point since the Cold War. The U.S. government has accused the Russian government of targeting its citizens and using them as political bargaining chips, but Russian officials say all are breaking the law.

Six Russian journalists were detained by authorities.This includes those who covered the Navy.

Some have been exchanged with Russians held in U.S. custody, while prospects for release in the exchange are less clear for others.

“Moscow itself has cut off most communication channels and does not know how to properly restore them without losing face, so it seems that it is trying to take advantage of hostages. … At least that’s what it looks like,” Boris said.・Mr. Bondarev stated. He is a former Russian diplomat who resigned after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Who are the Americans in custody?

Friday marks one year since the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovitch, 32, who is awaiting trial on espionage charges in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo Prison.

Mr. Gershkovych was arrested during a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains, and accused of spying for the United States, although Russian authorities have not released any details of the accusation or any evidence to support the charge. Neither Mr. Bich, his employer nor the U.S. government have disclosed the details. Everyone denies it.

Another American accused of espionage is Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan. He was arrested in Russia in 2018 and sentenced to 16 years in prison two years later. Mr Whelan, who said he had traveled to Moscow to attend a friend’s wedding, has maintained his innocence and insisted the charges against him were trumped up.

The U.S. government has declared that Gershkovic and Whelan are being unlawfully detained and is insisting that they be released.

Others detained include musician Travis Leake, who has lived in Russia for many years and was arrested last year on drug-related charges. Mark Vogel, a teacher in Moscow, was also sentenced to 14 years in prison on drug charges. and dual nationals Ars Kurmasheva and Ksenia Havana.

Ms. Kurumsheva, a Prague-based editor for the U.S. government-funded Tatar-Bashkir service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, was traveling to see her elderly, sick mother in October 2023. He was arrested in his hometown of Kazan. She faces multiple charges, including failing to declare herself as a “foreign spy” and spreading false information about her military.

Havana, who lives in Los Angeles, returned to Russia to visit family and was arrested on treason charges. The charges against her stem from a $51 donation to a U.S. charity supporting Ukraine, according to Pervy Otoder, a rights group specializing in treason cases.

The path to freedom through prisoner exchange

The exact number of Americans imprisoned in Russia is unknown, but the cases of Gershkovitch and Whelan have garnered the most attention.

Less than two weeks after his arrest, Gershkovic was declared unlawfully detained by the State Department, marking an unusually swift response by the U.S. government. This designation applies only to a small percentage of Americans imprisoned abroad.

Prisoners with this classification have their cases assigned to the State Department’s Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, who attempts to negotiate their release, but must meet certain criteria. This includes determining that the person is a U.S. citizen or that the arrest was made solely because he or she is a U.S. citizen. Part of an effort to influence U.S. policy or extract concessions from the government.

The United States has had some success in recent years in high-profile prisoner exchange negotiations with Russia, leading to a deal in 2022 and the release of WNBA star Brittney Greiner and Marine Corps veteran Trevor Reed. . Both Mr. Greiner and Mr. Reed were found to have been unlawfully detained.

In exchange, Moscow acquired arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year sentence in the United States, and pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in the United States for cocaine trafficking.

It is unclear whether exchange negotiations are underway with other Americans held in Russia, including Leake, Vogel, Kurmasheva and Habana.

Ms. Kurumasheva’s husband, Pavel Butrin, told The Associated Press shortly after her arrest that he hoped the U.S. government would use “all available means and means” to win her release, including designating her as an unlawful detainer. He said he wanted it.

Does the West have the Russians Moscow wants?

In December, the State Department announced it had made a significant offer to secure the release of Mr. Gershkovic and Mr. Whelan, which Russia said it had rejected.

Officials have not disclosed the offer, but Russia has announced that Vadim Krasikov, who was sentenced to life in prison in Germany in 2021 for the murder of 40-year-old Georgian Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili in Berlin. He is said to be seeking his release. An ethnic Chechen citizen who fought against Russian forces in Chechnya and later applied for asylum in Germany.

Asked about Gershkovych’s release earlier this year, President Vladimir Putin named the man imprisoned by US allies on charges of “purge of bandits” for allegedly killing a Russian soldier during separatist fighting in Chechnya. It seems that he mentioned Krasikov.

Other than that hint, Russian officials have remained silent about the meeting. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that while “constant contacts” regarding the exchange were continuing, “they must be carried out in absolute silence.”

It is unclear whether there are other Russians held in Western countries that the Kremlin might be interested in.

When Russia agreed to release Greiner but not Whelan, a senior Biden administration official lamented to reporters that Russia had “rejected all of our offers to release him.”

Roger Carstens, the presidential envoy for hostage issues, said in an interview with The Associated Press in January that such a scenario in which one detainee is released but not others weighs heavily on U.S. officials. He said he is doing so.

“We won’t win until someone steps off the plane, onto the tarmac and into the arms of their loved ones in the United States,” Carstens said.

Historically, “when relations[between states]are good, interactions seem smoother,” said the Moscow-born professor of international affairs at New York’s New School and great-grandson of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev. Nina Khrushcheva said. .

She pointed to prisoner exchanges between the Soviet Union and Chile during the detente period in the 1970s, as well as between the United States and Germany in the 1980s shortly after Mikhail Gorbachev took office. Prominent Soviet dissidents Vladimir Bukovsky and Natan Sharansky were released in these exchanges.

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But ultimately, the fate of those imprisoned in Russia “lies solely in the hands of President Putin,” Khrushcheva said.

Mr. Carstens echoed her opinion.

“These are difficult cases. It is true that Russia holds the keys to the cells,” he told The Associated Press in a statement this week. “The United States continues to engage in dialogue with our allies and partners about what can be done to ensure Evan and Paul’s freedom. These efforts are sensitive and we do not want Evan and Paul to negotiate publicly. will not help. America will keep trying until we can bring Evan and Paul home. ”