WASHINGTON — A Lansing, Michigan, man and Navy veteran who was detained by Russian authorities for nine months was released Thursday, according to his family's spokesperson.
Taylor Dudley, 35, was backpacking in Europe and traveled to Poland for a music festival before crossing the border into Russia in April 2022, spokesperson Jonathan Franks said. He first traveled to Europe to "seek inspiration for a potential book," Franks said, but it is not clear why he went to Russia.
Dudley had been held in Kaliningrand, a noncontiguous Russian province on the Baltic Sea, while former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and his non-profit, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, negotiated with Russian "counterparts and conduits" in Moscow and Kaliningrad, per a statement from the Richardson Center.
