A U.S. citizen has been detained in Russia over alleged drug offenses, state media reported Tuesday.
Robert Woodland, 32, has been remanded in custody until March 5 over charges related to illegally possessing or acquiring drugs, Moscow’s Ostankino District Court said. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted, according to Reuters.
Woodland was detained on Jan. 5 and charged the same day with “attempting to sell and produce drugs on a large scale,” Russian news site Mash reports. It also repeated claims from a 2020 interview in which Woodland said that he was born Roman Romanov in Russia but was taken to the U.S. by a couple of American scientists who paid $10,000 to an orphanage for his adoption in 1993.
ADVERTISEMENT
The 2020 article also said that Woodland later returned to Russia and reunited with his biological mother. It added that he lived in Dolgoprudny, around 12 miles north of central Moscow, and worked as an English teacher in a private school. A Facebook account in his name indicates he recently lived in the same place and had the same profession.
He appears to hold both U.S. and Russian passports. Russia’s Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti that “[i]f the U.S. Embassy applies, the Russian side will provide consular access to citizen Woodland,” though no further details were given.
The State Department has repeatedly advised all U.S. citizens to immediately leave Russia citing the “potential for harassment and the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials” among the risks for those who stay.
The U.S. considers several Americans wrongfully detained in Russia. Last March, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested while on a reporting trip and later accused of espionage—claims which the Journal and the Biden Administration have vehemently denied. Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan is also serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony after being convicted of spying in 2020.
