Day: January 9, 2024

A U.S. citizen has been arrested on drug charges in Russia, officials said on Tuesday, amid heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

A statement from the Ostankino District Court of Moscow said it ruled to keep Robert Woodland Romanov, who also holds Russian citizenship, in custody for at least two months as he awaits his trial. He has been accused of the “illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, production, processing of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues,” according to the district court’s statement. He faces up to 20 years in prison or an unlimited fine if found guilty.

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Woodland is the latest U.S. citizen to have been detained in Russia. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in March 2023 while on reporting trip to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. He has remained behind bars on espionage charges, which both he and the newspaper vehemently deny. The State Department has declared Gershkovich as wrongfully detained.

An ex-U.S. marine, Paul Whelan, has also been detained since 2018 on charges of spying.

According to Woodland’s Facebook profile, he teaches English and lives in Dologopruddy, a suburb in Northern Moscow. In a Facebook post in September 2022, he voiced his opposition to the war in Ukraine but stated he would serve in the Russian military if he was drafted.

“To my friends & family, For those who are worried about my safety out here in Russia with the current situtation and the draft to military service. I’m currently okay. I have not recivied my letter yet. I am not in support of this war, but if my letter to arms comes, I will not turn away. I know this sounds like a stupid choice, but remember…. America had done the same back during the Vietnam War….” he wrote.

The U.S. embassy has not yet released a statement on Woodland’s arrest.

Some experts have said that that Moscow could be using jailed Americans as bargaining chips in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At least two U.S. citizens— including WNBA star Brittney Griner—have in recent years been exchanged for Russians jailed in the U.S.

Azerbaijani authorities have arrested a French national suspected of being a spy, Azerbaijan’s envoy to France said Tuesday amid a diplomatic spat with Paris which has been selling weapons to Baku’s rival, Armenia.

“Suspected of committing acts of espionage, Martin Ryan … was arrested on December 4,” Azerbaijan’s ambassador in Paris, Leyla Abdullayeva, told French newswire AFP.

Judicial authorities then “ordered his detention for a duration of four months,” the ambassador said, adding that the French embassy in Baku was informed “as soon as he was arrested.”

The news comes amid escalating diplomatic tensions between Azerbaijan and France over Paris’ support for Armenia.

France, which is home to the largest Armenian diaspora community in Europe, has stepped up its defense cooperation with Armenia in recent months.

Following Azerbaijan’s seizure of the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, the French government in October announced it would sell air defense systems to Yerevan.

In December, Baku expelled two French diplomats over “conduct that is not compatible with their diplomatic status.” The French foreign ministry retaliated by expelling two Azerbaijani diplomats a day later, and said it “categorically reject[ed] the allegations.”