It’s been another no-news week on the hostage front, so I’m taking advantage of the lull to focus on the seven Americans still known to be held in Russian prison camps and penal colonies . . . plus one who was released last year and immediately vanished.

Let’s start with the missing man, Joseph Tater. I first reported on his story on June 10, 2025. At that time, Tater — who had been arrested in August of 2024 on charges of hooliganism, but instead of being tried as scheduled was sent to a psychiatric facility in April of 2025 — was said by Russian news agency TASS to have been released “for outpatient treatment” as allegedly “the clinic had no reason to keep [him].” [RFE/RL, June 6, 2025.] The article in TASS added that “Tater was no longer in Russia but that his current whereabouts were unclear.” [Id.]

And there the trail runs cold. There is no verifiable indication that he received any follow-up outpatient treatment in Russia, that he actually exited Russia, or where he might have gone if he did leave. When he was originally admitted for psychiatric evaluation, he was said to have been in a confused state. Yet he was supposedly released, basically on his own recognizance — an unheard-of action involving a foreigner in Russia.

Joseph Tater’s fate is unknown, and his case is growing colder by the day. My thoughts? I don’t believe he ever left Russia, and I fear that he may no longer be alive. That is not based on any special information — it’s just a hunch based on the way the system works in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Something happened to him, and someone knows what . . . but no one is talking.

As for the other seven Americans remaining as “guests” of the Putin regime, they are:

DAVID BARNES: Since 2024, he has been serving an extraordinary 21-year sentence for an unproven charge of abuse alleged by his former (Russian) wife to have been committed, not in Russia, but back home in Texas — where local investigators found no evidence of any wrongdoing.

STAFF SGT. GORDON BLACK: Sentenced in 2024 to three years and nine months for theft . . . also on the basis of unproven accusations by his former (Russian) girlfriend, who had lured him to Russia in the first place.

ROBERT GILMAN: Arrested in January 2022 on specious charges of engaging in an altercation with law enforcement officers who approached him when he was on his way to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to report an earlier incident in which his passport had been mysteriously damaged while he was ill and receiving treatment. Sentenced to 4-1/2 years, he is supposed to be on the fast track to release, but U.S.-Russian negotiations have allegedly been held up by the present stalemate on the war in Ukraine.

STEPHEN JAMES HUBBARD: A retired teacher sentenced in October 2024 to six years and 10 months in prison for the mortal sin (in Putin’s mind) of having served in a Ukrainian defense unit.

MICHAEL TRAVIS LEAKE: In July 2024, sentenced to 13 years for “attempted drug smuggling” — a common form of entrapment in Russia.

ROBERT (ROMANOV) WOODLAND: A Russian-born American citizen, Woodland (originally named Roman Romanov) was adopted as a baby by U.S. scientists. While in Russia in 2024, he was similarly accused of drug trafficking and sentenced to 12 years and six months in a maximum-security penal colony.

EUGENE SPECTOR: Another American of Russian birth, Spector was sentenced in December 2024 to a 15-year prison term for allegedly having leaked biotechnology secrets to the United States.

*. *. *

There may be negotiations for the release of these hostages underway behind the scenes that have not been made public — nor should they be, until there is something substantive to report. But it is impossible to know whether the recent quiet means that there will soon be good news, or that — worst-case scenario — the hostages have been overlooked in the chaos of other world events.

That is why I continue to post reminders that these Americans — and the thousands of other political prisoners incarcerated in Russia and elsewhere — are still out there, awaiting our help. So once again, here is the list of those known, which sadly remains only a fraction of the total:

Prisoners of War:

The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine

Immigrant Detainees in Russia:

Migrants from the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

Endangered Exiles:

Pavel “Pasha” Talankin
Mikita Losik
Yulia Navalnaya
Countless Journalists and Other Dissidents

Political Prisoners:

In Afghanistan:

Mahmoud Habibi (Afghan-American)
Paul Overby (American, missing since 2018)

In Azerbaijan:

The “Azerbaijan 7”:
— Farid Mehralizada
— Ulvi Hasanli
— Sevinj Abbasova (Vagifqiai)
— Mahammad Kekalov
— Hafiz Babali
— Nargiz Absalamova
— Elnara Gasimova

In Belarus:

Andrei Chapiuk
Uladzimir Labkovich
Andrzej Poczobut
Marfa Rabkova
Valiantsin Stafanovic
Yuras Zyankovich

In Georgia:

Mzia Amaglobeli

In Russia:

The “Crimea 8”:
— Oleg Antipov
— Artyom Azatyan
— Georgy Azatyan
— Aleksandr Bylin
— Roman Solomko
— Artur Terchanyan
— Dmitry Tyazhelykh
— Vladimir Zloba

James Scott Rhys Anderson (British)
Aleksandr Andreyev
David Barnes (American)
Gordon Black (American)
Hayden Davies (British)
Anastasia Dyudyaeva
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman (American)
Stephen James Hubbard (American)
Sergey Karelin
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Michael Travis Leake (American)
Aleksei Liptser
Grigory Melkonyants
Nika Novak
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Joseph Tater (American, disappeared)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)

You have not been, and will not be, forgotten.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
5/3/26