MOSCOW, Jan 20 (Reuters) – A Russian court sentenced a U.S. citizen to five years in jail for crossing the border with a weapon when he sailed from the United States to meet a Russian woman he met over the Internet, Russia’s court service said.
The man, identified as Charles Wayne Zimmerman, pleaded guilty but told the court that the weapon was stored on his yacht for self-defence and he had not been aware of the Russian law, the service said in Monday’s statement.
Russian prison ends a long voyage for Zimmerman, who sailed off in July 2024 from North Carolina to Portugal, and then through the Mediterranean and Black seas to arrive in June 2025 at the southern port of Sochi.
“Zimmerman told the court he had met a woman from Kazan over the internet and had decided to sail to meet her on his yacht,” the court service added, referring to the southern city.
“When setting off, he did not bother to study the laws of the Russian Federation and believed that the weapons stored on his yacht for self-defence should simply always remain on board.”
Found guilty, he was sentenced to five years in jail by a court in Sochi in the Krasnodar region, the service said.
It released video showing a rifle and Remington cartridges seized from the yacht, on which Zimmerman was seated with a bottle of water.
Reuters was unable to reach Zimmerman for comment.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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