A U.S. citizen arrested on drug charges in Moscow amid soaring Russia-U.S. tensions appeared in court on Thursday and had his case adjourned until mid-May. Robert Woodland is facing charges of trafficking large amounts of illegal drugs as part of an organized group — a criminal offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. He was detained in January, and the trial began in the Ostankino District Court in late March.
Russian media noted that the name of the accused matches that of a U.S. citizen interviewed by the popular daily Komsomolskaya Pravda in 2020. In the interview, the man said that he was born in Russia's 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 television show in Moscow.