US citizen arrested in Russia on drug charges

A U.S. citizen who publicly reunited with his mother in Russia a few years ago was arrested Tuesday in Moscow on drug charges that can carry a 20-year prison sentence.

The arrest comes as the U.S. State Department has warned Americans to leave Russia, pointing to risks of wrongful detentions amid deep tensions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Robert Romanov Woodland, 32, was detained Jan. 6 and ordered to remain in custody until March 5, according to Reuters. He was charged with illegal acquisition or possession of drugs, according to Moscow’s Ostankino District Court. 

Woodland’s lawyers asked if he could be transferred to house arrest, but prosecutors denied the attempt, according to the Russian news site Mash. The outlet said Woodland is accused of involvement in a large-scale operation to buy and sell illegal drugs. 

Woodland was born in Perm in Russia’s Ural Mountains before being adopted by U.S. citizens while in an orphanage and brought to live in America. Upon returning to Russia, Woodland worked as an English teacher just outside of Moscow. He came back because he wanted to find his Russian mother, which he eventually did, reuniting with her on Russian TV, according to his 2020 interview with the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. 

“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,” Woodland said in the interview. 

The State Department said it was aware of reports of the detention but did not comment further on the case, citing privacy concerns.

“The U.S. Department of State has no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas,” it said. “Whenever a U.S. citizen is detained overseas, our embassies and consulates stand ready to provide all appropriate consular assistance.”

Washington is seeking to free jailed Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich, both of whom have been deemed wrongly imprisoned in Russia.

The State Department said in December it made multiple offers to free both Gershkovich and Whelan, but all were rejected by the Russian government. 

Whelan, a former Marine, was arrested in 2018 for espionage-related charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was detained in March last year year while reporting in Yekaterinburg, a Russian city 1,200 miles east of Moscow. The U.S. government denies the charges in both cases.

Updated at 11:58 a.m. ET