Senator Cornyn: Meet With the Barnes Family NOW
David has been imprisoned in Russia for over 1,000 days. We — the Barnes family — have been working with politicians, government agencies, and experts to help bring him home. Progress has been slow and frustrating, but most of the people we’ve reached out to have been sympathetic to David’s plight and done what they can, with one big exception: David’s home state senator — John Cornyn.
Please write to Senator Cornyn and let him know you demand that his office meets with us, the Barnes family, NOW to help us bring David home:
Subject: Free David Barnes
I am asking for you to work to arrange the release of David Barnes in Russia and to meet with the Barnes family to discuss the matter further. David is a Texas resident who is currently being detained in Russia on a 21-year sentence based on false allegations that have already been investigated and disproved (twice) by Texas law enforcement officials. He has been imprisoned for over 1,000 days, and according to his family, your office hasn’t responded to their multiple emails requesting assistance. That is not the right way to treat a family asking for help.
In 2014, David filed for divorce from the mother of his children, a Russian émigré named Svetlana Boricovna Koptyaeva. Svetlana accused David of child abuse, but CPS and the Texas Attorney General quickly investigated and disproved Koptyaeva’s claims. The ADA on the case even said, “They were extremely outrageous allegations…that just had no credibility to them, whatsoever.”
In 2019, within two days of a Texas jury ruling that Svetlana and David would share joint custody, Svetlana fled with the kids to Russia. There is an open arrest warrant for Svetlana in Texas, the FBI has an open investigation of her for kidnapping the boys. In 2020, Interpol issued a Yellow Notice for the boys as victims of kidnapping, and the Center for Missing & Exploited Children has a case file on the boys.
David tried to visit his sons in Russia, but his ex-wife made allegations of child abuse to Russian officials who arrested David. He was not allowed to see a lawyer for two months. A Russian court convicted him without evidence even though the alleged abuse would have occurred in Texas, where again, it had already been twice disproven.
We demand that you meet with the family now. An American father moving heaven and earth to be in his sons’ lives is exactly the kind of situation where the American government needs to wield the full force of our foreign policy to defend our citizens abroad. Please work with the Barnes family and the State Department to grant David wrongful detainee status and find a quick resolution to his case.