U.S.-Russian woman arrested at Moscow airport for allegedly smuggling gun in her suitcase

Russian customs agents arrested a Russian-American woman at a Moscow airport for trying to bring a gun into the country in her suitcase, officials said Friday.

Russia’s Federal Customs Service said the woman, an unnamed dual citizen, was travelling from the United States via Turkey and was stopped at Moscow Vnukovo airport.

“Vnukovo customs officers stopped the illegal import of a pistol and a bank check worth $138,000,” it said on social media.

The Federal Customs Service of Russia said on social media that officers had stopped her during a random control check in the green lane of the customs corridor of the airport, used by passengers who do not have goods to declare.

“The suitcase was found to contain an American Colt Commander, .45 caliber with three empty magazines,” it said, while posting an image of the purported gun and magazines.

The woman — who lives in the United States — had said she was “unaware of the need to declare the goods,” it added.

Russia — which has strict gun laws — opened a criminal case against her for smuggling firearms.

Americans arrested in Russia

Russia has imprisoned several Americans as tensions with Washington soared in recent years. Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and teacher Marc Fogel were all designated wrongfully detained by the U.S. government, along with dual U.S.-Russian national Ksenia Karelina.  

All four of those Americans have been freed in prisoner swaps with Moscow.

Among the U.S. nationals still jailed in Russia is U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, whose three-year, nine-month prison sentence for robbing and threatening his Russian girlfriend was reduced in April by seven months.

Robert Gilman, 72, is currently serving a 3 1/2-year sentence in Russia for assaulting a police officer, and Travis Leake, a musician convicted on drug charges, was sentenced to 13 years in prison last summer. 

A Russian court sentenced another 72-year-old American, Stephen Hubbard, to nearly seven years in prison last October for fighting alongside Ukraine’s military.

American Joseph Tater was arrested in Russia in August 2024 after an apparent tussle with hotel staff and then forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital this April. He left Russia last month, state media reported, without ever standing trial.