Westerners arrested in Russia

Written by Alma Angeles on

More in Europe:

(FILES) US journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, shapes a heart with his hands inside a defendants’ cage after a hearing to consider an appeal on his extended pre-trial detention, at the The first court of appeal in Moscow on April 23, 2024. – Evan Gershkovich, a US reporter for Wall Street Journal, will go on trial in Russia on June 26, 2024 on espionage charges with the hearings held behind closed doors. Russian prosecutors have accused him of working for the CIA and “collecting secret information” about tank maker Uralvagonzavod in the Sverdlovsk region in the Urals. The trial will take place in the Sverdlovsk region’s main city of Yekaterinburg, where Gershkovich was arrested 15 months ago while on a reporting trip. He faces 20 years in a prison colony if convicted of espionage charges. (Photo by Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)

PARIS, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – US reporter Evan Gershkovich is due to face the start of a closed-door trial on espionage charges in Russia on Wednesday.

He is one of several Westerners held by Russia at a time when Moscow’s tensions with the West have soared to Cold War-era levels, following the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Washington has accused Moscow of arresting its citizens on baseless charges to use them as bargaining chips to secure the release of Russians convicted abroad.

Here is a list of those currently in Russian custody.

– Evan Gershkovich –

The Wall Street Journal reporter was detained by Russian security service agents in March 2023 and accused of spying — the first such charge against a Western journalist since the Soviet era.

He has spent more than a year in jail on the espionage charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The 32-year-old Gershkovich, his employers and the White House have all vehemently rejected the accusations.

Laurent Vinatier, a French national who works with a Swiss-based conflict mediation non-profit organisation, sits inside the defendant’s cage during his pre-trial detention hearing in Moscow on June 7, 2024. – Russian prosecutors on June 7, 2024, requested that a French man effectively accused of spying be sent to jail pending trial for breaching the country’s “foreign agents” law, his lawyer told AFP. (Photo by Natalia KOLESNIKOVA / AFP)

– Laurent Vinatier –

Vinatier, 47, is a French national working with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss-based conflict mediation non-profit organisation.

He was arrested on June 6, 2024, in Moscow and has been charged with breaching Russia’s “foreign agents” law, punishable by up to five years in jail.

The charge comes under a new censorship law introduced after Russia launched its military offensive on Ukraine in 2022.

Investigators have also accused Vinatier of gathering military information that could be used against Russia by foreign states.

(FILES) Alsu Kurmasheva, a US-Russian journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) who was arrested last year for failing to register as a “foreign agent”, attends a hearing on the extention of her pre-trial detention, at the Sovetski court in Kazan on April 1, 2024. – A Russian court on May 31, 2024 extended to August the pre-trial detention of US-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who faces 15 years in prison on charges of spreading “false information,” according to her employer. (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV / AFP)

– Alsu Kurmasheva –

The US-Russian journalist was arrested in October 2023 on similar charges to Vinatier, of failing to register as a “foreign agent”. She was arrested while visiting family.

A more serious case of spreading “false information” about the army was then levelled against the 47-year-old.

Kurmasheva, a journalist at the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), edited a book in 2022 collecting testimony from Russians opposed to the invasion of Ukraine.

Paul Whelan, a former US marine accused of espionage and arrested in Russia in December 2018, stands inside a defendants’ cage as he waits to hear his verdict in Moscow on June 15, 2020. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)

– Paul Whelan –

The former US marine was detained in December 2018 and is serving a 16-year sentence for spying, a charge the US government says is without merit.

For more than five years the 54-year-old has been in prison in Mordovia — some 250 miles (400 kilometres) southeast of Moscow — a region notorious for its harsh jails.

He worked in security for a US vehicle parts company when he was arrested in Moscow, and has always asserted that the evidence against him was falsified.

He says he was tricked by someone in his circle of friends.

US Army soldier Gordon Black, who was detained on suspicion of theft, appears in court in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on June 6, 2024. (Photo by Pavel KOROLYOV / AFP)

– Gordon Black –

The US soldier was sentenced in June 2024 to three years and nine months in prison by a court in Vladivostok, for having threatened to kill his girlfriend and for stealing from her.

Black, 34, was arrested in May in the far eastern city, where he was visiting a Russian woman he met and dated while serving in South Korea.

He was detained after the woman, named by Russian media as Alexandra Vashuk, reported him to the police after an argument.

This grab from a handout footage taken and released by Sverdlovsk regional Court press service on June 20, 2024 shows US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina siting in a cage at the Sverdlovsk regional Court in Yekaterinburg. – A dual US-Russian citizen accused of donating around $50 to a pro-Ukrainian charity goes on trial for treason in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Ksenia Karelina, a 32-year-old ballerina living and working in Los Angeles, was detained by police in Yekaterinburg in late January while on a trip to visit her family in Russia. Prosecutors accuse her of “proactively transferring funds to a Ukrainian organisation, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces subsequently used to purchase tactical medicine, equipment, weapons and ammunition.” She faces life in prison if found guilty. (Photo by HANDOUT / Sverdlovsk regional Court press / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / SVERDLOVSK DISTRICT COURT ” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

– Ksenia Karelina –

On June 20 Ksenia Karelina, a dual US-Russian citizen accused of donating around $50 to a pro-Ukrainian charity went on trial for treason in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg.

The 32-year-old ballerina living and working in Los Angeles, was detained by police in Yekaterinburg in late January while on a trip to visit her family in Russia.

She faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

 

This video grab taken from a footage shown by Russian state media that AFP couldn’t independantly authentify shows US basketball star Brittney Griner (L) during a swap of prisoner with Viktor Bout (2ndR), a Russian notorious arms dealer on December 8, 2022 on the tarmac of Abu Dhabi airport. – Griner, 32, who was arrested in Russia in February on drug charges, and Viktor Bout, 55, who was serving a 25-year sentence in a US prison, were exchanged at an airport in Abu Dhabi. In footage released by Russian state media, Griner, shorn of her distinctive dreadlocks, and a relaxed and animated Bout could be seen crossing paths on the airport tarmac and heading towards the planes that would take them home. (Photo by – / Russian State Media / AFP) 
This video grab taken from a footage shown by Russian state media that AFP couldn’t independantly authentify shows US basketball star Brittney Griner being released from prison on December 8, 2022 in Moscow. She was accused of possession of vape cartridges with a small quantity of cannabis oil and sentenced in August to nine years in prison. – Griner was headed home late on December 8, 2022 after being freed from a Russian prison in a swap for Viktor Bout, the notorious arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death.” US President Joe Biden announced Griner’s release in an address to the nation and Moscow confirmed she had been exchanged in Abu Dhabi for Bout, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US. (Photo by – / Russian State Media / AFP) 
In this video grab taken from footage released by Russian state television broadcaster VGTRK on December 8, 2022, freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout (2nd R), dubbed the “Merchant of Death”, reportedly speaks on a mobile telephone to family members during his flight before arriving in Moscow after a US-Russia prisoner exchange for basketball star Brittney Griner, as shown on Russian state tv channel Russia-24, part of the VGTRK group. – Viktor Bout, who was accused of arming rebels in some of the world’s bloodiest conflicts, carried flowers for his wife and his mother, who waited on the runway as he stepped out of the private jet that took him from Abu Dhabi to the Vnukovo 2 airport in the Russian capital. (Photo by – / VGTRK / AFP) / NO USE AFTER DECEMBER 9, 2027 16:31:55 GMT – — IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE — – — IMAGE RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – STRICTLY NO COMMERCIAL USE —

– Swaps –

American nationals living in Russia have already been the subject of prisoner swaps.

US basketball player Brittney Griner was freed in a prisoner exchange for convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in 2022 after she was arrested at a Moscow airport with medicinal cannabis.

In April 2022, former US marine Trevor Reed, who spent more than two years in a Russian prison after being sentenced to nine years for assault on law enforcement officers after getting drunk, was released in a prisoner swap with Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot and alleged drug smuggler who was sentenced to 20 years in prison by an American court.