An American citizen has been sentenced by a Russian court to 12.5 years in a maximum-security penal colony after being found guilty on drug charges.
Robert Woodland, 32, was arrested in Moscow in January and accused by prosecutors of trying to sell a large quantity of methadone. His lawyer told Reuters news agency that he had partially confessed to the charges.
Mr Woodland, who was born in Russia and adopted at age two, travelled to the country in 2020 to find his birth mother, a journey that was documented in a Russian reality TV show.
He is the latest American citizen to be held in the country. Some Western officials allege that the Kremlin is “hoarding” Americans in exchange for allies and agents held abroad.
In a statement released after Woodland’s sentencing on Thursday, Russian prosecutors said he was caught packaging a large quantity of narcotics in an apartment in the Russian capital.
They alleged that he was working with a large-scale criminal organisation and had transported 50 grams of drugs from a pick-up point outside the city.
His lawyer, Stanislav Kshevitsky, initially denied the charges, saying authorities had presented “no evidence” of drug sales to the court.
But he told Reuters on Wednesday that Mr Woodland had confessed to some of the charges against him. It remains unclear which charges he has accepted.
Footage released by Russian state media showed Woodland sitting in a glass cage in the courtroom, staring blankly into space as the verdict against him was read out.
Russian media reported that Mr Woodland decided to stay in the country after meeting his mother in 2020 while working as an English teacher near Moscow. His tearful reunion with his mother was broadcast on state television at the time.
According to the Interfax news agency, he holds dual American and Russian citizenship.
At least a dozen US citizens, including journalists and active-duty military personnel, are currently being held in Russian prisons and penal colonies.
Among them is Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained more than a year ago on espionage charges, which he denies. The U.S. considers him “wrongfully detained”.
Western officials have long suspected that Moscow wants to hold Western citizens to use as bargaining chips in prisoner swaps. US law prohibits paying ransoms to terrorist groups, but successive governments have been prepared to make concessions to other states to secure the release of Americans.
This is what happened to Brittney Griner, who was released in late 2022 after a prisoner swap with the US for controversial Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.
Although the U.S. State Department said earlier this year that it was aware of Woodland’s case, it declined to comment directly on the allegations.
Instead, it issued a statement saying it has “no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens abroad.”
U.S. officials have repeatedly warned American citizens in Russia to leave the country, citing the risk of unjust arrest and harassment by authorities.