While the US and Russia completed a massive prisoner swap involving 24 people following many months of negotiations and concessions from other European countries, not all Americans being held have made their way back home.
Despite the success of Thursday’s historic exchange – the largest prisoner swap between the two nations in post-Soviet history – several Americans remain behind in Russian prisons. There is no word on why they were not part of the exchange or if they are part of future negotiations. For now, however, they remain in Russian custody, many under questionable circumstances.
Here are the US citizens still in custody in Russia:
Ksenia Khavana
The former ballerina, 33, was arrested in Yekaterinburg in February on treason charges and accused of collecting money for Ukraine’s military. Khavana had returned to Russia from Los Angeles, where she worked at a luxury spa in Beverly Hills.
According to Russian media, Khavana was originally accused of “petty hooliganism,” using “coarse, obscene language in front of other citizens and was behaving rudely and defiantly.”
The officials further claimed that she violently resisted arrest. On January 29, she was reportedly found guilty and sentenced to 14 days in jail.
Soon after that case, Khavana was charged with treason stemming from a $51 donation to a US charity that helps Ukraine.
Her former mother-in-law Eleonara Srebroski, 56, previously told The Independent that Khavana was “always opening her heart and her wallet.”
“If we do not do anything, she is going to die in jail,” she says. “She does not have any hope to get out, because they do not have any justice [in Russia],” Srebroski said. “And if we as a country do not help her to come back here, to where she is… we’re going to lose a beautiful person.”
Marc Fogel
The 63-year-old school teacher from Pittsburgh has been held in a Russian prison for the last three years after he was arrested in August 2021 for possession of 17 grams of medical cannabis.
Fogel was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport for possession of medical cannabis, convicted and sentenced to 14 years in prison. In 2022, he was sent to a Russian penal colony.
After three Americans returned to US soil on Thursday Fogel’s wife, Jane Fogel, said the family is “devastated” that he wasn’t among them and expressed her disappointment in the Biden administration.
“We are devastated, and we feel that Marc has definitely been left behind,” she told Newsweek. “He has not committed a crime worthy of the punishment he is enduring, and people are being set free that have done horrible things.
“He’s an American who has been there for three years, and he should’ve been part of this swap.”
US State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel addressed Fogel’s case specifically on Thursday, saying: “We have called for Mark’s humanitarian release. We will continue to engage and work through our team in Moscow and continue to have those conversations.”
Gordon Black
The 34-year-old Army staff sergeant stationed at Fort Cavazos, Texas, was convicted June 19 in Vladivostok of stealing and making threats of murder against his girlfriend, and was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison.
He had flown to Russia from his US military post in South Korea without authorization and was arrested in May after the woman accused him of stealing from her, according to US and Russian authorities.
Russian state news agencies Tass and RIA Novosti reported from the courtroom in the Pervomaisky District Court in Vladivostok that the judge also ordered Black to pay 10,000 rubles ($115) in damages.
Prosecutors had asked for Black to be sentenced to four years and eight months in prison.
Travis Leake
The musician, who is in his mid-50s, had been living in Russia for years and was arrested last year in June on drug-related charges. In 2014, Leake discussed freedom of speech in Russia, during an episode of Parts Unknown with its late host Anthony Bourdain.
Speaking about an incident involving MTV, he said: “This was a documentary series about musicians standing up and risking their lives in some cases, to stand up against government abuse of power, government corruption.
“And yet, a foreign government was able to editorially control what American viewers see on their TV screens. That to me is a scandal of epic proportion.”
The former paratrooper was arrested in June 2023 and accused of “engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people,” according to local court documents.
Tabloid station Ren TV reported that Leake had not admitted to any crime, publishing leaked footage of his arrest in which he said: “I don’t understand why I’m here. I don’t admit guilt, I don’t believe I could have done what I’m accused of because I don’t know what I’m accused of.”
Robert Woodland
Woodland was sentenced to 12 years and six months in prison in early July, according to court officials and his lawyers.
The US/ Russian dual-national was found guilty of attempted trafficking of large amounts of illegal drugs as part of an organized group, according to an online statement released by court officials.
His lawyers said they will appeal the ruling because Woodland’s guilt hasn’t been proven, adding that Woodland has been suffering from unspecified mental health issues.
Russian media reported his name matches a US citizen interviewed in 2020 who said he was born in the Perm region in 1991 and adopted by an American couple at age 2.
He said he traveled to Russia to find his mother and eventually met her on a TV show.
David Barnes
An engineer from Texas, Barnes was arrested while visiting his sons in Russia, where their mother had taken them.
His supporters say the woman made baseless claims of sexual abuse that already had been discredited by Texas investigators but he was convicted in Russia anyway and sentenced to prison.