Russia gives U.S. man it accuses of illegally transporting weapons a 5-year prison term

Russia has sentenced an American man to five years in prison for illegally transporting weapons, a court said Monday, noting that a rifle was found on his yacht after it docked in the port city of Sochi last June. Russian media said he smuggle the weapons on his private yacht from July 2024 – June 2025.

Dozens of Westerners, including Americans, have been imprisoned in Russia, especially after the start of the Ukraine war in 2022, with many of them later swapped in prisoner exchanges.

“A U.S. citizen was found guilty of illegally transporting and moving firearms,” the regional court’s’ press service said in a statement.

It identified him as Charles Wayne Zimmerman and said he “admitted his guilt in full” and was “sentenced to five years in prison.”

It didn’t mention when the man was sentenced but said an appeal against the conviction had been rejected.

It was the first time his arrest and conviction has been mentioned in Russian media, which usually cover judicial proceedings of foreign citizens closely.

According to the court, the man sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.

It cited him as saying he’d met a Russian woman online and decided to visit her and that he didn’t know he was forbidden to keep a weapon on his yacht while it was docked in Russia.

In September 2024, the U.S. Coast Guard East issued a missing person alert for a man identified as Charles Zimmerman, 57, who departed on a sailing trip from Fort Macon, North Carolina, to New Zealand.

“Zimmerman was last heard from on July 23 (2024). He had informed a family member that he would be departing in his sailing vessel en route to the Mediterranean Sea,” the Coast Guard said on Facebook.

He was sailing on a 35-foot green and white-hulled vessel named the Trude Zena, it added.

In announcing Zimmerman’s sentence, the Russian court published on social media a slideshow that included a video of a white sailing boat and photos of a sniper rifle and ammunition allegedly found on board, and of a man sitting on the vessel.

Washington accuses Moscow of imprisoning U.S. nationals in order to swap them for Russian spies held abroad.