Jailed American Hit With New Charges By Russian Court, As 9 Total US Citizens Remain Imprisoned

Russian prosecutors have brought new charges against Robert Gilman, an American citizen and former Marine who was already slapped with an eight-year prison sentence for attacking law enforcement while drunk as well as a prison official, according to court records.

The 30-year old Gilman has actually owned up to the attacks – but claimed self-defense and that he was also responding to insults. The new charges, which were filed in late July in a court in Voronezh, southern Russia, are also said to relate to alleged assaults on prison staff.

Ex-Marine Robert Gilman, Sputnik via AP

Kommersant newspaper says Gilman’s legal team is requestiong a reduced sentence, citing an unspecified mental health issue, and he’s next due in court on August 25.

Gilman’s family as well as advocacy groups say he was wrongfully detained on false charges, and further that he’s being held as a bargaining chip for future possible prisoner swap with Washington. Here’s how one such US non-profit organization working on obtaining his freedom characterizes his arrest:

Robert is a Marine Corps veteran, who was traveling in Russia when he fell sick on a train. Instead of medical help, he was taken to a police station. He fell into a cycle of charges, which began with a case that was dismissed, a second that was without evidence, and a third for assault of a police officer where even the police officer says he should not be charged.

A typical Russian Government tactic is getting Americans into their system, and pile on various unfounded charges to keep them there. This is Robert’s story, and they continue to put him in conditions that set him up for further charges that further politicize his case. Beyond this, the profile of the case against Robert appears eerily familiar to the Trevor Reed case, where a former Marine unexpectedly blacked out and was charged with punching a police officer, suggesting this may all have been staged.

And here is a description of what came next via the Amsterdam-based Moscow Times:

Robert Gilman, 30, was found guilty of attacking a policeman while drunk in the western city of Voronezh in 2022 and sentenced to four and a half years in jail, which was later reduced to three and a half years following an appeal.

While jailed for that conviction, Gilman allegedly punched prison staff „in the head” on two separate occasions, once during an inspection of his cell in September 2023 and again in October, according to prosecutors cited by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.

Days later he attacked a criminal investigator and, after being moved to a pre-trial detention center, struck another prison guard during a search, the agency reported.

In October 2024, when Gilman was sentence for the attack on a prison guard, Reuters featured the following: „RIA cited Gilman as telling the court last week that he had been forced to use violence after the prison inspector had caused pain to his genitalia and after the investigator had insulted his father.”

Such an admission and the circumstances surrounding his case are perhaps why so far the US government has not declared him 'wrongfully detained’ – which is a legal designation which signfifies the US sees someone as essentially a hostage for which a swap can be authorized.

Even after a series of past high-profile prisoner swaps – from Brittney Griner to former US Marine Paul Whelan to The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkovich and others – at least nine American citizens are currently imprisoned in Russia.

Gordon Black, David Barnes, Robert Gilman, Ksenia Karelina, Stephen Hubbard, Joseph Tater, Gene Spector, Robert Woodland. AP/TASS via Moscow Times

Back in April, Russian-American ballerina and spa worker Ksenia Karelina was swaped for a Russian national accused by the US government of helping transfer sensitive electronics to the Russian military.

Karelina had been hit with treason charges by the Russian government, for merely making a $51.80 donation to an American charity supporting victims of the war in Ukraine. Apparently the transaction had been found on her phone while she visited Russian family, and this was enough to get her an ultra-harsh 12 year sentence in a Russian labor camp. Thus her case was more easily classified as 'wrongfully detained’ by the US.

Below is a summary review of the other eight detained Americans still in Russia, compiled by Reuters & other media sources:

Stephen James Hubbard

Hubbard, 73, was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison in October last year after being convicted in a closed court in Moscow of serving as a mercenary for Ukraine. Russian state media said he pleaded guilty.

An English teacher who had previously lived in Japan and Cyprus, Hubbard had been living in the Ukrainian town of Izium and was arrested after Russian forces took control of the town in 2022. His relatives rejected claims that Hubbard served for Ukraine, pointing to his advanced age.

He was designated by the US in January as “wrongfully detained”, meaning Washington is committed to try to negotiate his release.

Gordon Black

An active duty US staff sergeant based in South Korea, Black was detained in May 2024 in Russia’s Far East on suspicion of stealing money from his Russian girlfriend.

A court in June found Black guilty of stealing 10,000 roubles (R1,874) from the woman and threatening to kill her, sentencing him to three years and nine months in prison. In April, a Russian court cut Black’s sentence to three years and two months.

Daniel Joseph Schneider

Schneider was sentenced to six years in prison in September last year by a court in the Kaliningrad region for kidnapping his son after he tried to leave Russia with the four-year-old without permission from the boy’s mother.

Schneider was detained near Poland by Russia’s border service while trying to cross the border in a forest swamp, the court said.

Joseph Tater

Tater was sentenced to 15 days in jail last August for “petty hooliganism” after he was alleged to have abused staff at a Moscow hotel, which he denied. Russian news agencies later said he was also being investigated on a more serious charge of assaulting a police officer, which carries up to five years in prison.

On April 6 a court ordered Tater be removed from pretrial detention and placed in hospital. State media said doctors have diagnosed him with a mental disorder.

A Russian court later ruled he was not criminally responsible for his actions and committed him for treatment in a Russian hospital.

Michael Travis Leake

A musician and former US paratrooper, Leake was sentenced to 13 years in prison last July for drug smuggling.

It was not clear how Leake pleaded to the charges, filed after his arrest in June 2023.

Robert Romanov Woodland

A US citizen adopted from Russia as a child, Woodland had moved back to Russia and was working as an English teacher when he was arrested on charges of attempting to sell drugs. He was sentenced on July 4 last year to 12 years and six month in prison. His lawyer said Woodland had partially admitted guilt.

In April, a Russian court ordered Woodland’s jail sentence be reduced to nine years and six months, his lawyer told Reuters.

Eugene Spector

Serving a three year and six months sentence for bribery, Spector, who was born in Russia and moved to the US, was charged last August with espionage.

Before his arrest in 2021, he served as chair of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company specialising in cancer-curing drugs, state media said. Spector had pleaded guilty to helping bribe an assistant to an ex-Russian deputy prime minister. It was not clear how he pleaded to the espionage charge.

David Barnes

Barnes was sentenced by a Russian court in February 2024 to 21 years on charges of abusing his two sons in the US. He had been involved in a custody dispute with his Russian ex-wife.

The allegations had previously been investigated in Texas, where authorities found no grounds to charge him.

Andre Khachatoorian

An Armenian-American from Los Angeles, Khachatoorian was sentenced to eight years and six months in prison in 2023 for arms trafficking. He was arrested in 2021, while travelling from California to Armenia via Moscow, after a firearm was found in his luggage.

Khachatoorian, 38, said his firearm was legal, and he was tricked into applying for a Russian visa at the airport, and removed from the transit zone, where he could be arrested under Russian law.

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It is entirely possible that at least some of these imprisoned individuals could be traded in a future swap with the United States – something which Moscow has clearly shown itself open to, especially in instances where it can get back from US custody people that may have been tied with its intelligence services.