On Aug. 1, the eyes of the world were focused on a multicountry, 24-person prisoner exchange that saw three American citizens and one green-card holder released from Russian detention. While the United States rejoiced at the news of the swap, four innocent Americans remained behind. Today, they sit in Russian prisons with no information about when they might be released.

Ksenia Karelina, Robert Gilman, Andre Khachatoorian, and David Barnes could not be included in August’s prisoner exchange because the U.S. State Department had not designated them “wrongfully detained.” Without this designation, the U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs cannot be engaged to “develop a strategy to secure their release.”

The Washington Examiner reached out to the State Department for an explanation of the factors impeding wrongful detention determinations for the aforementioned cases. While providing no specific information, a spokesperson explained that “the Department of State continuously reviews the circumstances surrounding the detention, including those in Russia, for indicators that they are wrongful.” After a “fact-based review that looks at the totality of the circumstances for each case individually,” the spokesperson stated that “the Secretary of State has ultimate authority to determine whether a case is a wrongful detention.”

U.S. nonprofit group Global Reach’s CEO Mickey Bergman told the Washington Examiner that it “is crucial that the State Department designates these cases as being wrongful detentions. Right now, the designation is not happening, and State won’t explain why they have not acted, why it is taking so long, or what their holdup is,” Bergman said.

The chances that Secretary of State Antony Blinken will act on wrongful detention designations prior to President-elect Donald Trump taking office grow slimmer by the day.

Trump has nominated Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) to head his State Department. Rubio, who awaits confirmation, is certain to face all the tensions emanating from Ukraine, Central Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. But in the midst of the maelstrom, he should swiftly begin the effort to issue wrongful detention designations for Americans who remain in Russian detention facilities on spurious and exaggerated charges.

Ksenia Karelina

Dual Russian American citizen Ksenia Karelina was detained while traveling in Russia to visit her elderly grandparents on Jan. 2, 2024. After her release, Karelina was subsequently arrested on charges of hooliganism. Karelina’s charges were increased to state treason after Russian authorities found evidence on her phone of a $51.80 donation from 2022 to a U.S. nonprofit group supporting victims of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. Russia claims Karelina “proactively” fundraised to support the Ukrainian military.

In April 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law increasing the maximum penalty for state treason from “20 years to life imprisonment.” That Karelina made her donation a full year before the treason penalty was increased mattered little to the Russian judiciary. Karelina pleaded guilty to reduce her sentence, but on Aug. 15, she received a 12-year prison sentence.

Karelina’s boyfriend, boxer Chris van Heerden, has spearheaded efforts to bring her to safety. He told the Washington Examiner that he is concerned for Karelina’s mental state. Karelina’s parents tell him their daughter has “lost all hope” after being subjected to a barrage of harassment from Russian media organizations that force her to “answer questions that make it look like she is the bad guy.”

Van Heerden said he worked hard after Karelina’s arrest “to get [her] declared wrongfully detained” and make her “a priority” during hostage negotiations. Van Heerden said the State Department urged him to take his time securing Karelina’s designation, assuring him “that there would not be a prison swap before the election or even early next year.”

Since she was not included in the Aug. 1 exchange, van Heerden continues pressing for Karelina’s designation. “There could be a prison swap next week. There could be a prison swap next month,” he said. But “if she’s not declared wrongfully detained, she will be left again.”

In the meantime, 37-year-old van Heerden reports that his hopes to start a family with 32-year-old Karelina one day grow dimmer. “The longer she stays there, the more this is setting us back,” he explained.

Robert Gilman

Robert Gilman, an infantry Marine-turned-English teacher and computer programmer, was traveling by train through Russia to a teaching position in Moldova when he was arrested on Jan. 17, 2022. Officers had responded to passengers’ complaints that Gilman was violently sick and unable to stand. Instead of bringing Gilman to a medical facility, officers brought him to a police station. While being restrained, Gilman unintentionally kicked a police officer. Gilman later told authorities that he believed he consumed tainted vodka.

Gilman was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison. Though this sentence was later reduced by one year, Gilman has been repeatedly charged with new offenses during his more than 960 days of detention. These include the more serious charges of attacking prison and legal officials.

Gilman’s sister, Lexie Harper, told the Washington Examiner that her brother has been provoked into retaliating against his captors. Gilman’s portrayal by Russian authorities as a fighter and drunk is worlds apart from the “nerdy” programmer Harper loves. Harper noted she has only seen her brother, who is passionate about teaching English and protective of his older sister, consume a single beer on two separate occasions.

Harper said her brother was “really close with” her first two children, explaining with dismay that Gilman has not met her third and fourth children, born during his captivity.

Harper has not spoken to Gilman since his departure from the U.S. But through his attorney, Gilman recently asked his mother to move to Florida to help Harper with her children. “He’s imprisoned, and he’s still thinking of me and the kids,” Harper said through tears.

Harper stressed “how important it is for [Gilman] to be declared wrongfully detained.” She said her brother has been kept in a punishment cell and has been subject to torture, including sleep deprivation, forced exercise, and beatings by his cellmates.

Gilman has also reportedly been drugged with unknown medications, telling Russian authorities in June that he was being poisoned and “believed he would die ‘relatively soon.’”

Though his 3 1/2-year prison sentence was slowly reaching its end, Gilman was recently given an additional sentence of seven years and one month. Russian prosecutors allege he assaulted a prison official and a state investigator.

Harper believes the additional sentence is intended to make Gilman a more lucrative candidate for a prisoner exchange.

“I worry that he will not be able to survive the conditions if he remains there,” Harper said.

Andre Khachatoorian

Andre Khachatoorian was en route to visit his fiancée’s family in Armenia when he asked flight personnel to grant him access to medications in his luggage during a layover in Moscow. Inside his bag was a locked case in which he had stowed a firearm in accordance with legal and airline restrictions.

Russian authorities noticed the weapon and tricked Khachatoorian into signing a Russian visa. Once they convinced him to depart the transit area and physically enter Russia, Khachatoorian was arrested on weapons trafficking charges on Dec. 27, 2022.

Khachatoorian has been in Russian custody for over 980 days.

David Barnes

During 2018 divorce proceedings in Texas, David Barnes’s Russian wife, Svetlana Koptyaeva, accused him of molesting their children. After finding “insufficient evidence” of the charges, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services closed its case against Barnes. In March 2019, Barnes and Koptyaeva were awarded joint custody of their children. Two days later, Koptyaeva kidnapped the children and fled to Russia.

The court subsequently granted Barnes full custody of his children, and prosecutors issued a warrant for “felony interference with child custody” for Koptyaeva. None of these efforts brought Barnes’s children home.

When Barnes flew to Russia in January 2022 to seek visitation with his children, he was arrested on charges of child abuse. In February, Barnes was sentenced to 21 years in a penal colony.

Urgent action required

Bergman is adamant that Russia has “politicized” the cases of these four Americans “so they can all eventually be used in trades” for Russian prisoners.

Citing the State Department’s Human Rights Report on Russia, Global Reach emphasizes that Americans are confronting a Russian justice system that is corrupt, rife with torture, and designed only to “serve the objectives of the Executive Leadership, not Russia’s people.” Given the dire injustices Karelina, Gilman, Khachatoorian, and Barnes face in Russian detention, Bergman insists that “there needs to be a sense of urgency in making these [wrongful detainment] designations.”

Whether as a final act of beneficence from Blinken or an urgent priority for the incoming secretary of state, assisting Americans wrongfully imprisoned must be a priority.

Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance contributor to Fox News and the host of The Afghanistan Project, which takes a deep dive into nearly two decades of war and the tragedy wrought in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.