Russia has freed Marc Fogel, an American schoolteacher and former employee of the US Embassy in Moscow, who had been serving a 14-year sentence for drug smuggling.
Fogel had been caught in possession of a small amount of marijuana. The State Department had designated him late last year as “wrongfully detained” by Russia, committing Washington to try to negotiate his release.
At least 10 other Americans remain behind bars in Russia.
Here are the most prominent cases.
Stephen James Hubbard
Hubbard, who turns 73 on Thursday, was sentenced to six years and 10 months in prison in October 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 city in 2022. His relatives rejected claims that Hubbard served for Ukraine, pointing to his advanced age. He was designated in January as wrongfully detained.
Ksenia Karelina
A dual Russian-American citizen, Karelina was sentenced to 12 years in prison last August after a Russian court found her guilty of treason for donating just over $50 to a New York-based charity supporting Ukraine. The U.S. says she is wrongfully detained.
The Los Angeles spa worker was arrested in February 2024 while visiting family in Yekaterinburg. After discovering the charity donation on her phone, the FSB security service accused her of collecting funds for the benefit of the Ukrainian army.
Her lawyer has said she pleaded guilty in the hope of getting a lighter sentence, and that he would work towards securing her release in a future prisoner exchange.
Robert Gilman
Gilman received a sentence of seven years and one month last October. An ex-Marine, 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.
Gilman was already in prison at the time of the offence, serving a 3-1/2-year sentence for attacking a police officer while drunk, a charge he was convicted of in October 2022.
