A Moscow court announced Tuesday that an American is being held in Russia on drug charges and could face up to 20 years in prison.
Moscow's Ostankino District Court announced on January 6 that Robert Romanov Woodland was detained until March 5 on charges related to illegally obtaining or possessing drugs.
Russian internet news site Mash reported that Woodland, 32, was charged with large-scale manufacturing and attempted sale of illegal drugs.
He was taken into custody on January 5, Mash said.
According to a Facebook account under the name Robert Woodland, he worked as an English teacher in Russia and lived on the outskirts of Moscow.
Woodland, who is in Russian custody, could not immediately be reached.
Woodland, known to friends as “Rob,” told a Russian newspaper in 2020 that he was adopted by an American citizen from an orphanage in Perm in the Ural Mountains in 1993 and brought to live in the United States. Ta.
After that, he returned to Russia.
He seems to have both Russian and American passports.
The United States has announced that several of its citizens are being wrongly imprisoned in Russia, including Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
The State Department has repeatedly warned all Americans to leave Russia immediately, citing the risk of unjust detention and harassment from Russian security services.
Woodland said in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in 2020 that he has wonderful adoptive parents in the United States.
Facebook / Robert Woodland
However, he wanted to find his genetic mother in Russia and eventually reunited with her on Russian state television.
“Mom cried and begged for forgiveness. But I forgave her before this meeting. I have never been angry with her. I have always missed her. is.”
“I was attracted to Russia with tremendous force. And here I am. I decided to stay in the Motherland forever,” he said in an interview.
