Here’s one I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of before now: Robert Woodland Romanov, facing drug charges in Moscow.

Unlike Brittney Griner, the American basketball star who was arrested upon arrival in Moscow last year with a minuscule amount of cannabis oil in her luggage, U.S. citizen Robert Woodland (a.k.a Robert Romanov, or any combination thereof) has been charged with “trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs,” allegedly as part of an organized group — a crime that carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Needless to say, his situation is dire. Drug trafficking charges are not a laughing matter anywhere; but in Russia, especially for a foreign citizen (and an American, at that), his case presents a golden opportunity for the government to gain a new hostage for their perennial swap fest.

Mr. Romanov was taken into custody in January, with a trial beginning in late March in the Ostankino District Court. A new court hearing is scheduled some time “next week.”

According to Russian media, Romanov’s name “matches that of a U.S. citizen interviewed by the popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2020.” [Associated Press, April 15, 2024.] The AP report continued:

“In the interview, the man said that he was born in the Perm region in the Ural Mountains in 1991 and was adopted by an American couple when he was 2. He said that he traveled to Russia to find his Russian mother and eventually met her on a TV show in Moscow.

“The man told Komsomolskaya Pravda that he liked living in Russia and decided to move there. The newspaper reported that he settled in the town of Dolgoprudny just outside Moscow and was working as an English teacher at a local school.”

The Facebook page for one Robert Woodland indicates as his alternate name “Roman Askhatovich Romanov,” and the picture clearly resembles the man currently on trial in Moscow.

There didn’t seem to be any doubt in the minds of Russian authorities as to the identity of Woodland-Romanov when he was arrested in January of this year. According to The Moscow Times report of January 9, 2024, he was taken into custody on January 6th and placed in detention for a period of two months, until March 5th. He stands accused of the “illegal acquisition, storage, transportation, manufacture, processing” of drugs, for which he could face 10-20 years in prison. He was reportedly caught “purchasing 4.5 grams of an unidentified drug with the intent of selling it later.” The substance in question was said to be a synthetic narcotic known as mephedrone. [The Moscow Times, Jan. 9, 2024.]

*. *. *

The U.S. State Department has said that it was aware of reports of the detention of a U.S. citizen, and that it “has no greater priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas.” But they chose to make no further comment, citing “privacy considerations.” [Associated Press, April 15, 2024.]

And so, as a dual U.S.-Russian citizen, Robert Woodland Romanov finds his place on my list of hostages being held in Russian prisons. In his case — unlike the obviously political arrests of anti-Putin dissidents — the charges against him appear to be purely of a criminal nature. Whether he was guilty or — not impossibly — set up, we may never know. But it is likely that he will become a pawn in the Russian human trade wars.

*. *. *

In the 2020 Komsomolskaya Pravda interview, Woodland-Romanov said: “I always understood that I was Russian, but I didn’t do much to learn the history of my homeland. Now I’m here. I’ve decided to stay in my home country forever.”

I wonder what he thinks about that decision now.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/19/24