A Moscow court has ordered the arrest in absentia of Conor Kennedy, placing the 32 year old son of US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr on Russia’s international wanted list.
The Basmanny District Court in Moscow authorised the detention after prosecutors filed charges alleging Kennedy acted as a mercenary for Ukrainian forces, a classification that carries a possible seven to ten year prison term under the Russian Criminal Code.
The case was later upheld by the Moscow City Court in a closed appeal hearing after defence counsel appealed the warrant, as reported by Russian state media outlet TASS.
Russian authorities say the Investigative Committee examined foreign nationals fighting with Kyiv and concluded Kennedy participated in direct combat against Russian forces in the Kharkiv region during the autumn of 2022.
Kennedy’s alleged service followed his decision to join Ukraine’s International Legion shortly after Russia’s full scale invasion in 2022, according to public posts Kennedy made on Instagram after he returned to the United States.
He travelled to Poland before entering Ukraine, underwent accelerated infantry training, and served as a machine gunner on the northeastern front in Kharkiv for roughly two and a half to four months, the accounts say.
Russian prosecutors have added Kennedy to the Interior Ministry’s international wanted database, a step that complicates travel to states that cooperate closely with Moscow and that could trigger arrest if he enters jurisdictions maintaining extradition ties with the Russian Federation.
Implications Family And Background
Washington does not recognise Russian court orders targeting foreign military volunteers and does not maintain extradition treaties with the Russian Federation, a factor that limits immediate legal consequences for Kennedy while he stays in the United States.
Conor Kennedy was born into a prominent political family and is the eldest child of Robert F Kennedy Jr and his late wife Mary Richardson Kennedy. He is the grandson of Robert F Kennedy and the great nephew of John F Kennedy.
He studied at Deerfield Academy and Georgetown University and earned a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 2023, after which he practised law in Los Angeles. He was briefly arrested in 2013 during an environmental protest with his father, as previously reported.
The Kremlin action arrives amid a more public political arc for his father, who ran in the 2024 Democratic primaries, launched an independent bid, later suspended that campaign to endorse Donald Trump, and was nominated and confirmed as HHS Secretary, according to earlier reports.
Kennedy has since resumed his life in California, announcing an engagement in August 2024 to Brazilian singer Giulia Be and later formalising the relationship in a civil ceremony attended by family. Neither his father nor the Department of Health and Human Services issued formal responses to the Moscow ruling.
