American David Barnes enters 4th year of detention in Russia

While videos of Evan Gershkovich, Brittney Griner, Trevor Reed and Paul Whelan returning to the United States through prisoner exchanges over the last few years have brought sighs of relief to many Americans, these moments have been bittersweet for Paul Carter of Huntsville, Alabama.

"It's hard on us, but it's harder on David," Carter told ABC News, referring to his lifelong friend David Barnes.

Monday marks three years since Barnes, a 67-year-old father of two who grew up in Huntsville and most recently lived in Texas, was first detained in Russia.

In February 2024, Barnes was sentenced by a judge to 21 years in the Russian penal system on accusations that he abused his two sons in Texas, even though those allegations were previously found by law enforcement in suburban Houston to be uncredible.

"David is the one that's really, really suffering here,” Carter said, explaining that he hopes Barnes will be included in a Russian prisoner exchange under the next Trump administration. “If they have another exchange and he is not included on it, it's going to devastate him."

Barnes’ family and friends are now receiving support from other Americans whose loved ones have been detained abroad, including Diane Foley, who started the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation after her son’s brutal killing by ISIS in Syria in 2014.

"My heart goes out to the Barnes family because I experienced this for two horrific years when our son was in captivity," Foley told ABC News. "I would encourage them to persevere in faith and hope, and keep pushing our government and working within our government to make sure that David's physical and emotional needs are taken care of and that he can come home."

From Montgomery County to Moscow

Barnes was taken into custody in Moscow on Jan. 13, 2022, several weeks after arriving in Russia.

“He went because he wanted to establish legal visitation with his children,” Barnes’ older sister Carol told ABC News. “That's the only reason he went.”

His trip to Moscow followed a yearslong child custody dispute and an acrimonious divorce process in Montgomery County, Texas, involving him and Svetlana Koptyaeva, his ex-wife, who is originally from Russia.

While in Texas, Koptyaeva went to local law enforcement to accuse Barnes of abusing their children. The matter was investigated by agencies including the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.

"I do know that everyone that heard and investigated the child sexual abuse allegations raised by Mrs. Barnes during the child custody proceedings did not find them to be credible," Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office Trial Bureau Chief Kelly Blackburn previously told ABC News.

While the custody dispute was ongoing in 2019, Koptyaeva allegedly took the children out of the United States, causing the FBI to trace their movements.

Interpol issued global yellow warning notices to announce that the boys were missing and law enforcement in Montgomery County issued a felony warrant against Koptyaeva for interference with child custody.

A Texas court subsequently designated Barnes as the primary guardian of his children, but since the boys were believed to have ended up in Russia with Koptyaeva, he was unable to have a relationship with them.

“He was trying to go all the legal routes to do it,” Barnes’ younger sister Margaret Aaron said.

Eventually, following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Barnes’ family and friends say he decided that it was time to travel to Russia to seek custody in Moscow’s family court system. This was just months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“He had already hired an attorney before he left the United States over in Russia,” Carter said.

After finding out that Barnes arrived in Moscow, Koptyaeva went to Russian law enforcement to report the allegations from Texas, according to Barnes' relatives.

"It seems that Russia used that accusation as an excuse to wrongfully detain a U.S. national,” Foley said.

'If we could just get the State Department to do something’

The interference with child custody warrant for Koptyaeva remains active in Texas, according to the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office. She maintains that her children were abused in the Lone Star State.

"I didn't steal anyone," Koptyaeva said outside the courthouse in Moscow after her ex-husband was sentenced. "I was just protecting my kids."

“The boys’ voices are not heard in the U.S.,” Koptyaeva told ABC News by email Thursday. “For some unclear reasons, the U.S. authorities and media have a profound bias to protect the abuser and not the victims of the abuse.”

Barnes remains in a Moscow detention center and has not yet been transferred to a penal colony since the appeal of his conviction is still pending, said his attorney, Gleb Glinka.

"He's in a room with 14 other people," Carter said. "Some of these are hardened criminals he's in there with and he's just having a hard time. He's been bullied. He's not in a mentally very good state."

Carter and Barnes’ two sisters told ABC News they felt let down by the State Department under the Biden administration, explaining that they wanted Barnes to receive a wrongful detention designation like Gershkovich, Griner, Reed and Whelan did.

"We've given them ample evidence of why that should happen and we've heard nothing," Carter said. “We feel ignored and forgotten.”

The State Department declined to comment about Barnes’ detention, but previously said that it “continuously reviews the circumstances surrounding the detentions of U.S. nationals overseas, including those in Russia, for indicators that they are wrongful.”

"If we could just get the State Department to do something," Carol Barnes said. "We're pleading for somebody to pay attention."

Although the accusations by Russian prosecutors involve child abuse in Montgomery County, Blackburn, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office Trial Bureau Chief, said the State Department and The White House never reached out to his office regarding Barnes’ case in Russia.

Barnes’ two sisters say they hope the State Department under the second Trump administration will take steps to bring their brother home.

“I didn’t do anything,” Barnes said on a recent phone call with his sister Carol. "This is a political situation and I need political help.”

ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova contributed to this report.