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Agence France-Presse

Reuters

Russia has detained and brought drug-related charges against US citizen Robert Woodland, who was apprehended by law enforcement earlier this month, a Moscow court said on Tuesday.
“On January 6, the Ostankinsky District Court of Moscow ordered Robert Romanov Woodland to be placed in detention for a period of two months, until March 5, 2024,” the court said on social media.
He is accused of the “illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacture, processing” of drugs and faces up to 20 years in prison.
A Facebook account in the name of Robert Woodland indicated that he had been working as an English teacher in Russia, and lived outside Moscow.
Navalny describes transfer to harsh ‘Polar Wolf’ prison in Russian Arctic
In 2020, Woodland, who was known to friends as “Rob”, told a Russian newspaper that he was adopted in 1993 by US citizens from an orphanage in Perm, in the Urals, and taken to live in the United States. He later returned to Russia.
He appears to have both Russian and American passports. It was not immediately possible to contact Woodland in Russian custody.
In Woodland’s 2020 interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, he said he had wonderful adopted parents in the United States.
But he wanted to search for his genetic mother in Russia and was eventually reunited with her on Russian state television.
I was drawn to Russia with a tremendous force. And here I am. I have decided to stay in my motherland forever
Robert Woodland
“Mama was crying and begging for forgiveness. But I forgave her before this meeting. I’ve never been angry at her. I simply always missed her very much.”
“I was drawn to Russia with a tremendous force. And here I am. I have decided to stay in my motherland forever,” he said in the interview.
Moscow is holding several American nationals on espionage and other charges, as tensions between Russia and the US balloon over the conflict in Ukraine.
Critics accuse Moscow of using detainees as bargaining chips to exchange Russians jailed in the United States.
Paul Whelan, an ex-US marine, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in jail on spying charges that he denies.
Alsu Kurmasheva, reporter with US citizenship, is ‘foreign agent’: Russia
In late March 2023, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich became the first Western journalist to be held on espionage charges in Russia since the Soviet era.
US-Russian dual citizen, journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, was arrested in October. She has been charged with failing to register as a “foreign agent” and spreading misinformation.
In December 2022, Russia released basketball superstar Brittney Griner in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout – known as the “Merchant of Death” – who had been jailed in the United States.
The State Department has repeatedly warned all Americans to leave Russia immediately, citing the risk of wrongful detentions and harassment from Russian security services.


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Robert Woodland is accused of the ‘illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacture, processing’ of drugs and faces up to 20 years in prison
A Moscow court ordered that Woodland to be placed in detention until March 5


Robert Woodland is accused of the ‘illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacture, processing’ of drugs and faces up to 20 years in prison.
