The Americans still left in Russian prisons: A ballerina, a teacher and a musician all await their return home

Here are the US citizens are still in custody in Russia after last year’s massive prisoner swap and subsequent releases. On Tuesday, school teacher Marc Fogel became the latest American citizen held prisoner by Russia to be returned to U.S. soil. The 66-year-old, from Pittsburgh has been imprisoned for the last three years after he was arrested in August 2021 for possession of 11 grams of medical cannabis. He had been sentenced to 14 years in prison and was sent to a Russian penal colony in 2022.

Upon his arrival, he was greeted by president Donald Trump, who he hailed as a “hero.”. Fogel was one of several Americans left out of a massive prisoner swap involving 24 people between the U.S. and Russia last year under the Biden administration, which followed many months of negotiations and concessions from other European countries. Despite the success of the historic exchange – the largest prisoner swap between the two nations in post-Soviet history – and subsequent releases, several Americans still remain behind in Russian prisons, many under questionable circumstances.

Here are the U.S. citizens still in custody in Russia:. Ksenia Khavana. The former ballerina was arrested in Yekaterinburg in February last year 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 U.S. charity that helps Ukraine. Her former mother-in-law, Eleonara Srebroski, 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.". Stephen James Hubbard. English teacher Hubbard had been living in the Ukrainian town of Izium and was arrested after Russian forces took control of the city in 2022.

He was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison in October 2024 after being convicted in a closed court in Moscow of serving as a mercenary for Ukraine. Russian state media said he pleaded guilty. However, his relatives rejected claims that Hubbard served for Ukraine, pointing to his advanced age. Hubbard turns 73-years-old on Thursday, February 13. He was designated in January as wrongfully detained.

Gordon Black. An Army staff sergeant stationed at Fort Cavazos, Texas, was convicted June 19 2024 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 U.S. 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. Robert Gilman. Gilman, an ex-Marine, received a sentence of seven years and one month last October. He was found guilty by a Russian court of assaulting a prison officer and a state investigator at a penal colony in Voronezh, south of the Russian capital, according to The Associated Press.

Gilman was already in prison at the time of the offence, serving a 3.5-year sentence for attacking a police officer while drunk, a charge he was convicted of in October 2022. Travis Leake. The musician, who is in his late-50s, had been living in Russia for years and was arrested in June 2023 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.