How many American prisoners in Russia in 2022?

Families of U.S. citizens detained abroad are stepping up pressure on President Joe Biden to intervene to try to free them – some held by adversaries including Russia, China, and Iran – but his administration has struggled to outline a strategy.

Saying that quiet lobbying of the administration has produced only limited results, the families have begun to collectively raise their voices to urge Biden to make the issue a higher priority and for the U.S. officials to take steps such as arranging further prisoner swaps with foreign governments

Two Americans detained overseas – two-time Olympic gold medal-winning basketball star Brittney Griner in Russia and Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi in Iran – have made separate public pleas to Biden in recent days asking him to take action to end their captivity. Griner sent a handwritten letter while Namazi wrote a guest essay in the New York Times.

Russia’s April release of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed intensified calls by relatives of others held overseas for Biden to act. Reed was freed after three years of detention as part of a prisoner swap with Russia at a time of heightened tensions between the countries due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In this deal, Biden commuted the sentence of Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot who served time in a U.S. prison.

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