A Russian adopted by Americans was sentenced to 12 years in prison
A Russian court sentenced an American man to twelve and a half years in prison on drug trafficking charges, the man's lawyer told Reuters on July 4. Robert Woodland, who has US and Russian citizenship, lived near Moscow and worked as a teacher. He was detained in January and has been in custody since then, writes CBS News.
Photo: IStock
Russian state media reported that Woodland was found guilty of attempting to traffic large quantities of drugs and participating in an organized crime group. According to the lawyer of the convicted person, Stanislav Kshevitsky, his client partially admitted his guilt.
In a 2020 interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, Woodland said that he decided to return to the country where he was born after living most of his life with a foster family in the United States. At the age of 26, the guy wanted to find his biological mother. After meeting her on Russian television, he decided to move to Russia.
When asked about Woodland, US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel stated at a briefing on February 5, 2024:
“For privacy reasons, I can share limited information. But the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs notified us on January 9 that this US citizen had been detained.”
Patel, among other things, recalled the warning of the United States government, in which it urges Americans to refrain from traveling to Russia.
On the subject: A court in Russia fined Google $50,5 million for articles about the war with Ukraine and ‘LGBT propaganda’
Russia is holding several other U.S. citizens in its prisons, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who appeared in a closed court in Yekaterinburg on June 26, 15 months after his arrest on espionage charges. Gershkovich himself, his employer and the United States government categorically deny the guilt of the convicted man. The State Department declared the reporter "wrongfully detained," meaning the U.S. government has an obligation to actively pursue his release.
Paul Whelan, a former Marine who is now a security executive at a US company, was arrested in Moscow for espionage in 2018 and is serving a 16-year sentence. The State Department also found him wrongfully detained in Russia.
On June 19, a court in Vladivostok sentenced an American soldier arrested earlier this year to three years and nine months in prison on charges of theft and threats to kill. Sergeant Gordon Black, 34, flew to Vladivostok to meet the girl and was arrested after she accused him of theft.
Last year, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, who has US and Russian citizenship, was arrested on suspicion of violating a law requiring "foreign agents" to register with the Russian government.
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Another dual citizen, Los Angeles resident Ksenia Karelina, is on trial in Yekaterinburg on charges of treason for donating a relatively small amount of money to an American charity supporting Ukraine.
The US government has repeatedly accused Russia of wrongfully detaining Americans in order to use them as “chips” to exchange for Russians detained in the United States. This practice was dubbed “hostage diplomacy” in the United States.
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