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May 14, 2026 / 5:08 PM EDT

/ CBS News

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Anastasia Antonov describes herself as a "proud U.S. citizen" who believes that her father, Aleksandr, was arrested by the Russian government last year and sentenced to six years in prison because he is an American citizen. She is now personally appealing to President Trump to get Russian President Vladimir Putin's government to free her father. In a letter written to Mr. Trump by Anastasia and shared with CBS News, Anastasia wrote that she "felt it was time" to elevate her father's imprisonment to the president, which indicated her frustration with the slow-moving State Department. Aleksandr Antonov, 66, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who immigrated from the Soviet Union in the 1990s but returned to Ukraine and Russia on business trips. At a passport check in Russia on March 5, 2025, Russian border officers found his U.S. passport and alleged he had Telegram messages on his phone containing anti-Russian sentiment. He was later convicted on charges related to inciting terrorism and extremism.CBS News has learned from one current and two former U.S. officials that there is an internal debate at the State Department over whether to designate Antonov as wrongfully detained, a classification indicating that the U.S. believes the charges against him are fabricated. Current and former U.S. officials contacted by CBS News said Antonov's case had been reviewed, and several officials recommended in a memo to Secretary of State Marco Rubio's top counselor that Antonov had been wrongly detained. However, the recommendation to classify him as wrongfully detained was at odds with other State Department diplomats who feared upsetting the ongoing, albeit unsuccessful, Russia-U.S. diplomacy related to the Ukraine war. Two officials briefed on the case told CBS News that the main obstacle to Antonov's designation is that concern about further inflaming tensions with Russia.There is a discretionary nature to that legal designation, and the authority ultimately rests with Rubio to grant it.