Earlier this week I had the great pleasure of announcing the release of two of our American hostages: Robert Gilman and Stephen Hubbard. (See my posts of October 21.)

But let us not lose sight of all those remaining in Putin’s prisons, including Americans David Barnes, Gordon Black, Michael Leake, Eugene Spector, and Robert Woodland Romanov.

Yes, I know that’s just five, not ten. But from a statement issued by the U.S. State Department about these two releases, I learned of five additional detainees who were previously unknown to me. They are:

Daniel Schneider
Chuck Zimmerman
Andre Khachaturian
Aleksandr Antonov
Olga Jezler

Daniel Schneider, a Maryland resident was married to a Russian woman. In 2023, his wife returned to Russia, illegally taking their young son with her following a court battle in Maryland. Daniel traveled to Russia to attempt to get his son back, but was arrested and charged with kidnapping. Sentenced to six years, he remains in prison in Kaliningrad, a small Russian exclave bordering Poland and Lithuania.

*. *. *

Chuck Zimmerman, 58, a master electrician and U.S. Navy veteran from Virginia, was sailing in international waters on the Black Sea in June of 2025, when he was intercepted by a Russian naval vessel. When he voluntarily surrendered a firearm he kept for his personal safety, he was forced to sail to the Russian port of Sochi, where he was charged with arms smuggling. He has been sentenced to five years in prison.

*. *. *

Andre Khachaturian, a dual citizen of Armenia and the U.S., was arrested in 2021 during a layover in Moscow en route to Armenia to visit his wife’s family. He was carrying a licensed, secured firearm in his checked luggage in accordance with the guidance he had received from Russia’s Aeroflot Airline. While in the airport in Moscow, he had to access his luggage to retrieve some medication, and a Russian official saw the firearm. Despite being fully compliant with Russian law, he was arrested and charged, ultimately being sentenced to eight years in prison for “improper registration” of the firearm.

*. *. *

Aleksandr Antonov is a 66-yea-old citizen of Russia, the United States and Ukraine who had formerly lived in Crimea. In March of 2025, following a visit to his former Crimean home, by then occupied by Russian invaders, he was leaving Russia to cross into Estonia when he was detained at passport control. On the basis of his social media history between 2022 and 2024, when he had expressed his support for Ukraine, he was charged with inciting terrorism and extremism under the Russian Criminal Code and sentenced to six years in a Russian prison colony.

*. *. *

Olga Jezler, a legal permanent resident of the United States who was born in Russia, had traveled back to Moscow in June of 2022 to help care for her sister, who was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She had brought with her some CBD capsules for her sister, which are legal in Russia and which she openly declared, as she had done on previous visits. But this time — after being allowed to leave the airport and spending three days in Moscow — she was arrested and charged with drug trafficking, earning her a ten-year sentence in a prison colony.

Five more cases of entrapment of guiltless American citizens, arrested for no other reason than to be warehoused as collateral until they can be exchanged for some future favors. Innocent human beings, treated as so much merchandise.

When will it end?

*. *. *

And, as always on Sunday, here is the list of those hostages still being held in Putin’s prisons. Sadly, though we were able to delete two names, the addition of five more has lengthened the list once again.

But the good news is that we now have word that negotiations for their release are ongoing . . . and we’ll take all the hope we can get.

Prisoners of War:

The 20,000+ Kidnapped Ukrainian Children
The People of Ukraine
The 6,000 Starving Citizens of Oleshky

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
Oleg Orlov
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
Aleksandr Antonov (Russian/Ukrainian/American)
David Barnes (American)
Yevgenia Berkovich
Gordon Black (American)
Hayden Davies (British)
Yury Dmitriyev
Anastasia Dyudyaeva
Antonina Favorskaya
Konstantin Gabov
Robert Gilman (American)
Stephen James Hubbard (American)
Olga Jezler (Russian/American)
Sergey Karelin
Andre Khachaturian (Armenian/American)
Timur Kishukov
Vadim Kobzev
Darya Kozyreva
Artyom Kriger
Aleksandr Kynev
Michael Travis Leake (American)
Aleksei Liptser
Svitlana Loi (in Ukraine)
Mikhail Loshchinin
“Madame Z” (in Ukraine)
Grigory Melkonyants
Dmitry Morozov
Boris Nadezhdin
Nika Novak
Svetlana Petriichuk
Leonid Pshenychnov (in Russian-occupied Crimea)
Ilya Remeslo
Nadezhda Rossinskaya (a.k.a. Nadin Geisler)
Lev Schlossberg
Daniel Schneider
Sofiane Sehili (French)
Igor Sergunin
Dmitry Shatresov
Robert Shonov
Grigory Skvortsov
Eugene Spector (American)
Joseph Tater (American, disappeared)
Karina Tsurkan
Arseniy Turbinin (age 18)
Laurent Vinatier
Robert Romanov Woodland (American)
Chuck Zimmerman

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

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
10/25/26