On Monday, October 7, Russian justice sentenced a 72-year-old American, Stefan Hubbard, to almost seven years in prison, accused of having been a “mercenary” in the service of Ukraine and quickly tried behind closed doors after being secretly detained for more than two years. On the same day, a court in the city of Voronezh handed down a prison sentence of seven years and one month to another American, Robert Gilman, who was already serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence.
Washington accuses Moscow of imprisoning its citizens and then exchanging them for Russian agents detained in the West. Moscow and the Westerners proceeded on Day 1.Ahem August in the largest prisoner exchange since the Cold War: it involved Russian and Western journalists and opponents on the one hand and alleged Russian agents on the other.
The case of Stefan Hubbard, sometimes called Stefan in the Russian media, is unique, because he was taken prisoner in Ukraine on April 2, 2022, at the beginning of the Russian offensive, but it was not until September 27, 2024 that Moscow He made his arrest public on the first day of his trial. This 72-year-old man appeared on Monday for his verdict before a Moscow court, visibly tired and walking with difficulty, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist present at the scene.
Expedited closed trial
He was found guilty after a fast-track trial behind closed doors and, according to Russian state media, admitted the facts. No information about his detention conditions has been made public.
According to the prosecution, Mr. Hubbard joined a Ukrainian territorial defense battalion at the beginning of the Russian offensive, made up of volunteer soldiers, and as such was paid “at least 1,000 dollars (or 899.52 euros) per month”received training, received uniform and weapons and “participated in the armed conflict” in Ukraine.
According to the Russian state news agency TASS, Hubbard had lived since 2014 in Izium, a city in the Kharkiv region of northeastern Ukraine. This city of 45,000 inhabitants before the conflict had been occupied by Russian forces from the spring of 2022 until the fall of the same year, when they were expelled by a Ukrainian counteroffensive.
In a video cited by Russian state media, available on YouTube and dated May 2022, a thickly bearded man introduces himself as Stefan James Hubbard, born in Big Rapids, Michigan. Mentions the Russian occupation.
Americans, French, Colombians…
Several other Westerners, particularly Americans, are imprisoned in Russia. Among them, Robert Gilman, who was convicted in 2022 for attacking a police officer while intoxicated and was serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence. On Monday, a Voronezh court imposed an additional seven years and one month of detention on him for attacking guards at his penitentiary.
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Among the other Americans imprisoned in Russia is Ksenia Karelina, a Russian-American citizen sentenced in August to twelve years in prison for, among other things, donating about fifty dollars to an organization that supports Ukraine.
The Frenchman Laurent Vinatier, a researcher specialized in the post-Soviet space and who works for a Swiss NGO, is being tried for not having registered as a researcher“foreign agent” while he was picking “military information”. He faces up to five years in prison and has pleaded guilty. Two Colombian citizens, Alexander Ante and José Arón Medina Aranda, are also detained in Russia and accused of “mercenarism” for having fought in Ukraine.
