Kieran Ramsey, the chief investigative officer for Global Reach, detailed the horrific conditions U.S. Marine veteran Robert Gilman experienced while wrongfully detained by Russia and urged the immediate release of five other Americans held in Russia in an interview with Fox News Digital.
Ramsey, who worked with U.S. authorities to secure Gilman’s release after 1,666 days in a Russian prison, praised President Donald Trump’s efforts to secure Gilman’s return on humanitarian grounds.
“Mr. Gilman’s home, no doubt, because of the leadership from President Trump. He made a full court press with his senior most team requesting that the Russians release him on a humanitarian basis, which is exactly what happened. And no doubt it was the work of some good, quiet diplomacy on the part of people like Steve Witkoff, his special envoy and Secretary Rubio, and even the CIA director was involved,” Ramsey told Fox News Digital.
Gilman was released to U.S. authorities on Tuesday after Russian police arrested him in the city of Voronezh in 2022 after he made an unplanned diversion to Russia on his way to a new teaching job in Moldova. Ramsey detailed the circumstances that led to his arrest.
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“The start of this horrific nightmare comes from the fact that he was actually transiting Moscow. He never intended to stay or visit Russia. He was en route to a new teaching job in Moldova. And while en route, he became really sick. He had to stay and recuperate. And he does have some extended family in Russia. His father had immigrated from Russia years ago. So after he recuperated to where at least he thought he was well enough, he decided to go to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow to renew his passport. But again, en route to the embassy, he became violently ill and that’s where Russian police came upon him, thought he was drunk, assaulted him, said that he assaulted them, and then it just snowballed from there,” Ramsey revealed.
Ramsey also revealed the treatment Gilman received while in a Russian prison, which included an extensive campaign of beatings and apparent psychological torture.
“Never have we seen the treatment that Mr. Gilman suffered as bad as anybody else. He was provoked in prison. He was beaten in prison, He was forced to exercise, he was forced to fight, and then he was told just some crazy things like, you know, there was a hit team to go assault his father in Boston. And things like that, when they’re all together and you’re cut off from the outside world and you have no idea if there’s any hope, you can imagine how that compounds on somebody,” Ramsey explained.
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When asked if there was any legitimacy to the Boston hit team, Ramsey said “totally psychological mumbo-jumbo disinformation campaign to make him feel awful.”
Gilman, Ramsey told Fox News Digital, is now recuperating in a U.S. hospital alongside family, and while he “still has a long road to go,” was able to receive immediate medical care thanks, in part, to the State Department designating him as a wrongful detainee.
But Global Reach is representing five other Americans detained in Russia who Ramsey argues also deserve that status and have yet to receive it.
“All five of those we would assert are wrongfully detained do meet the criteria under the Robert Levinson Hostage-Taking and Accountability Act,” Ramsey told Fox News Digital, referencing the 2020 bill that grants the president “visa- and property-blocking sanctions against any foreign person responsible for or complicit in the unlawful or wrongful detention of a U.S. national abroad.”
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But Ramsey also detailed the political hurdles that may prevent the U.S. from immediately recognizing the detainees as wrongfully detained.
“There’s been a policy debate inside the State Department as to whether classifying them or categorizing them as wrongfully-detained will raise the price in that diplomacy or that hostage diplomacy negotiations with the Russians to get their release,” he explained.
Ramsey then told the stories of his five clients, each facing debilitating health conditions in their imprisonment.
Alexander Antonov, the first of Ramsey’s clients he described to Fox News Digital, is an international businessman from California. “He’s a proud husband and father. He’s an international businessman. He had business interests in Russian-occupied Crimea and Ukraine,” Ramsey explained.
Antonov was on his way home from a business trip from Ukraine and transited through Russia “which obviously is a risky venture,” Ramsey said.
Russian authorities stopped him and found his U.S. passport and “immediately he became a target for them,” Ramsey also said.
Antonov is now sitting in a Russian prison and was recently violently assaulted by another inmate, Ramsey said, adding that he continues to hear reports that Antonov’s being harassed simply for being an American.
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Antonov was detained just over a year ago, Ramsey told Fox News Digital.
He then detailed the case of David Barnes, a Texas native who traveled to Russia to retrieve his children after his Russian ex-wife fled and took them to Russia.
Barnes was embattled in a contentious custody battle with his ex-wife, Ramsey explained, in which she allegedly made unsubstantiated claims about him.
“Mr. Barnes went to Russia to recover his children and his ex-wife yet again made claims of criminality against him and the Russians acted upon it. And he’s been sitting in a prison now for over four years, and he’s got his own health issues,” Ramsey explained.
Olga Jezler, a 36-year-old green card holder who lived in New York, is another detainee Ramsey represents who was taken after flying to Russia to take care of her sick sister.
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After flying to Russia to take care of her sister with cancer, Russian authorities detained her because she was carrying CBD oil, which Ramsey said was legal in Russia.
“Nevertheless, the Russians saw an opportunity and they charged her with drug trafficking. And today she still sits in a Russian prison,” he told Fox News Digital.
Jezler has significant health issues and is at risk of losing her ability to have children, Ramsey said. The condition she has is easily treatable in the U.S., he explained.
Andre Khachatoorian is, Ramsey said, yet another case of somebody who was not supposed to be in Russia.
Khachatoorian was transiting through Russia to reach Armenia while transporting a rifle, Gilman said. He allegedly had all the proper paperwork.
Khachatoorian also has an autoimmune disease that continues to get worse while he been sitting in a Russian prison for more than four years, Ramsey said.
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Ramsey also named Chuck Zimmerman, who Russian authorities nabbed in international waters.
“Chuck Zimmerman is originally from Virginia. He set sail on his lifelong dream with his life savings to sail around the world and end up in New Zealand where he was planning to be a master electrician,” Ramsey detailed.
Zimmerman, Ramsey told Fox News Digital, had planned to travel through the Red Sea to reach his final destination, but he rerouted after the war in Iran began.
“He could even hear the bombs from his sailboat where he was at the time. So he decided to divert to the Black Sea. While in the Black Sea, in international waters, the Russian Navy approached him and told him, under threat of force, you will follow us to the Russian port of Sochi or we will sink you,” Ramsey told Fox News Digital
Zimmerman had a firearm on board his vessel, leading Russia to charge him with international arms trafficking, Ramsey told Fox News Digital.
He has been in a Russian prison for over a year.
“He has very serious medical issues. We’ve consulted medical authorities even recently who have told us he either needs to be treated for a bleeding gastric ulcer or perhaps something worse. But at this time, as we sit here, He’s unable to eat without having to throw up immediately after. He’s losing weight at a very rapid pace. And quite honestly, he’s losing hope that he’s ever gonna make it out of there,” Ramsey said.
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Ramsey again iterated the urgent need for the U.S. to designate his five clients as wrongful detainees.
“We don’t want to lose momentum right now,” he said.
“Seeing Mr. Gilman come home was fantastic. And I’ve been asked, ‘well, you guys should be, you know patting yourselves on the back or people should be celebrating.’ Well, no. It’s fantastic. Mr. Gilman’s in a hospital in the US with his family right now, but…. We alone have five other families that are going, ‘when can we expect the same for our loved one?’ And we have to keep the pressure up everywhere we can to make sure people know these folks’ names and have an expectation that the U.S. Government is going to do everything they can to convince the Russians to let these people go,” he said.
Fox News Digital contacted the U.S. State Department for further comment.
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