American Travis Leake Rots in a ruzzian Prison

I recently came across this Rolling Stone article about an American “friend,” Travis Leake, who is currently serving time in a ruzzian prison.

I put “friend” in quotes because our interaction was limited to Facebook. We only “met” through my actual Russian musician friend, Dmitry Spirin —extensively quoted in the article—who worked with Travis and tried to warn him. Travis was naive at best, stupid at worst.

The few email interactions I had with Travis back in 2014, while working on Dima’s debut release Tarakany - Russian Democrazy for Punk Outlaw Records, weren’t exactly positive. He struck me as a know-it-all. I also remember seeing him on Anthony Bourdain and thinking he came off as arrogant and insecure.

So I was surprised when, shortly after ruzzia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he reached out to me on Facebook asking for help finding music gear and with his music career

The timing felt strange—borderline like a setup—especially since I was in Ukraine at the time. But I hate prejudging people I’ve never met, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was being genuine.

In the months immediately following the invasion, several Russian musician friends I’d met during a 2010 trip reached out to express their horror at what was happening—then dropped out of sight. I get it. Communication is monitored. Why risk prison just to tell an American you’re not on Putin’s team?

I never heard from Travis again until Summer 2023, again in Ukraine, filming "My Summer in Ukraine", I saw Dima appear on ABC News Tonight via social media and learned that Travis had been imprisoned.

Naive, stupid, ideological—I don’t care. No one deserves imprisonment under false pretenses, especially in ruzzia, where it can be deadly.

I don’t root against the Trump administration; I root for them to do the right thing. Time and again, they fail me. This is one moment where I hope—even if by accident—they finally do the right thing and bring Travis home.

He can be a MAGAt. I’m sure he will be. I don’t care. Maybe if he returns, he can speak honestly about what it’s like to live in ruzzia—an authoritarian country where anyone in uniform can do whatever they want to citizens. That’s something we’re supposed to be avoiding here at home.

Link to the Rolling Stone article HERE. 

Screenshots of my Facebook correspondence with Travis are in the comments below