Russia jails U.S. citizen for six years for kidnapping son

MOSCOW — A court in Russia’s Kaliningrad region said it had sentenced a U.S. citizen to six years in jail and fined him for 100,000 roubles ($1,078) for kidnapping his son, after he tried to leave Russia with the child without permission from the boy’s mother.

The court said that the U.S. citizen, Daniel Joseph Schneider, tried to leave Russia with his four-year-old son, who is a Russian citizen, on July 29, 2023.

Schneider was detained near Poland by Russia’s border service while trying to cross the Russian border in a forest swamp, the court said.

Russian state TV channel Vesti said that Schneider had tried to get permission from the child’s mother to take him abroad but that she refused. Schneider’s lawyers were not available for immediate comment.

In August, Russia, the United States and several other countries carried out a major prisoner exchange, which involved 24 prisoners — 16 moving from Russia to the West and eight sent back to Russia from the West.