U.S. citizen Robert Woodland arrested in Moscow on alleged drug charges

According to the information from the Ostankino District Court in Moscow, Woodland Robert Romanov is accused of planning and trying to commit a crime, as well as illegally dealing drugs. The court decided to keep him in detention for two months, until March 5, 2024.

According to The Washington Post, the person accused of a crime has the same name as an American citizen who was interviewed by pro-Kremlin Russian tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2020. The man shared that he was born in the Perm region in the Ural Mountains in 1991. When he was two years old, an American couple of scientists adopted him. He returned to Russia 27 years later to find his birth mother and finally met her on a TV show in Moscow.

The man said that he enjoyed living in Russia so much that he decided to move there. According to the newspaper, he settled in the town of Dolgoprudny, just outside Moscow, and was working as an English teacher at a local school.

Other U.S. citizens detained in Russia

Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan are U.S. citizens known for being unjustly imprisoned in Russia.

Evan Gershkovich is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He lived in Moscow for about six years, covering events in Russia and Ukraine but was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service and arrested on espionage charges, which both the journalist and the U.S. government strongly deny.

Paul Whelan is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran. He was imprisoned in Russia on similar espionage charges. He strongly denies the allegations made by the Russian authorities.