Securing the Return of Leon Levenstein

Dear Mr. Secretary,

My six-year-old son, Leon Levenstein, is a United States citizen who has been held in the Russian Federation since December 2023 after the sudden death of his mother during a short visit to Moscow. Within twenty-four hours of her death, Russian authorities placed Leon under guardianship with a maternal relative without notifying me, his surviving parent.

Since then I have pursued every legal avenue available in Russia—custody proceedings, a Hague Convention petition, appeals, and requests for visitation—but the courts have refused even basic father–son contact. My Russian counsel now believes the judiciary itself cannot resolve the case; they describe a procedural loop in which the guardian blocks access and the courts issue only unenforceable “recommendations.”

In practical terms, Leon’s reunion with his father will not come without diplomatic intervention.

For that reason, I respectfully ask that Leon’s return be raised at the highest levels of U.S.–Russia engagement as a humanitarian confidence-building measure, including through the active Witkoff–Dmitriev channel.

The return of a single American child would be a low-cost but powerful signal that dialogue can produce immediate human results.

If it were possible for Mrs. Melania Trump to raise Leon’s case directly with President Putin, as she has compassionately done for children and families affected by the war in Ukraine, it would mean the world to us; if such appeals can be made for Ukrainian children, surely they can also be made for an American child.

Beyond that, you understand better than anyone how diplomacy works at the highest levels. I respectfully ask you to use your judgment and influence to help bring this wonderful boy—who still has his whole life ahead of him—home to his father.