American jailed in Moscow on drug charges
Robert Romanov Woodland, an American citizen who was arrested in early January and charged in a drug case, has been remanded in custody, the Russian judiciary said. “In a decision made on January 6, the Moscow Ostansky Court (…) decided to detain Robert Romanov Woodland for two months, until March 5, 2024,” writes the press service of the Moscow courts on Telegram. He is specifically accused of “acquiring, possessing, manufacturing and transporting” drugs “in large quantities,” a crime punishable by twenty years in prison.
A Facebook account under the name Robert Woodland states that he is an English teacher in Russia and lives on the outskirts of Moscow. Robert Woodland (birth name Roman Romanov) was adopted in 1993 by American scientists David and Marcia Woodland, writes the Russian website Info 24.
In recent years, several American citizens have been arrested and given heavy sentences in Russia, with Washington often accusing Moscow of doing so in order to swap them for Russians imprisoned in the United States amid confrontation over the conflict in Ukraine.
A former marine, Paul Whelan, has been imprisoned in Russia since 2018 and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020 for espionage. At the end of March 2023, security services also arrested Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist for the Wall Street Journal, who is also accused of espionage. Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, who worked for the media company Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), was also arrested in October. In particular, she is accused of spreading “false information” about the Russian army. In December 2022, American basketball player Brittney Griner, convicted in Russia of cannabis trafficking, was released against Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States.