In November 2021, Robert was on his way to a new job teaching English in Moldova. He had already established a teaching business in Poland and was pursuing this as a career after his time in the US Marine Corps. While transiting through Moscow, Robert became ill and had to spend time recuperating there before traveling onward. While recovering, he realized his luggage and passport had been tampered with, and he had to replace missing pages before he could travel onward.

Robert turned the misfortune of his illness into an opportunity to visit extended family outside of Moscow. On November 17, 2021, on his way back to Moscow to visit the US Embassy to have his passport repaired, he became violently ill again. He fell to the floor, gagging. Instead of helping him, Russian police tried to restrain him, and his leg accidentally hit one of the police officers. They took him into custody, where prosecutors began to charge him with a series of vague and escalating charges, including the same charge used to convict former American and US Marine detainee Trevor Reed. He has now been sentenced to 4.5 years, and additional sentences are pending.