The Ostankino District Court of Moscow announced that it detained US citizen Robert Woodland Romanov for two months on Tuesday.

He has been accused of violating provisions of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for the large-scale production, sale or possession of illegal drugs. Robert Woodland-Romanov faces up to 20 years in prison or an unlimited fine if found guilty.

Russian media has linked Robert Woodland Romanov with the participants in a 2020 interview with Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. In it, “Robert Woodland” said that he was born in Russia in 1991 but was taken and adopted by American parents in 1993, allegedly in return for a $10,000 payment. He returned to Russia in 2019 to look for his biological parents and worked as an English teacher. 

The arrest comes as Russo-American relations remain at their nadir, with tit-for-tat hostile actions since the outbreak of the War in Ukraine. In 2023, Russia arrested American journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva for espionage and failing to register as a foreign agent, respectively. Two Russian-Canadians were also arrested in October 2023 in New York for allegedly conspiring to illegally ship $13.9 million worth of restricted technology to the Russian military. 

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