Romanov Woodland worked as an English teacher, according to a Facebook profile bearing his name and birth date. He was adopted as an orphan from Perm by American couple Marcia and David Woodland when he was 2 years old in 1993, he told the Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in December 2020.
He said his name at birth was Roman Romanov and that his birth date was Dec. 7, 1991. He moved permanently back to Russia in 2020, according to the Facebook profile and the newspaper interview.
“The truth is that I am not an American at all, but a Russian,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
The U.S. State Department has accused Russian authorities of improperly detaining two Americans in Russia. Evan Gershkovich, 33, a Wall Street Journal reporter, was arrested last year and accused of spying. Paul Whelan, 53, a security consultant, was jailed in 2018 and convicted of spying and sentenced to a 16-year prison term in 2020. Both men and the State Department have strongly denied the charges.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Russian and U.S. officials were engaged in talks over Gershkovich but denied reports that Moscow had rejected an offer to free him. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said talks were underway regarding Gershkovich and Whelan.
WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested in February 2022 for carrying vape oil containing traces of cannabis. She was convicted in August that year and sentenced to 9½ years in prison. In December 2022, she was exchanged for Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout, who was convicted and imprisoned in the United States.
The State Department did not immediately comment on Romanov Woodland’s arrest.
Russian Telegram media outlet MASH, known to be close to Russian law enforcement, reported that the case against Woodland Romanov is related to illegal drug production, carrying a possible term of up to 20 years in prison.
Romanov Woodland told Komsomolskaya Pravda that his parents, American scientists, adopted him after seeing a video of him playing in the orphanage and that they loved him and an adopted sister “very much.” After college, he got a job washing dishes in a hospital kitchen.
He tracked down his birth mother, Galina Romanova, with his adoptive parents’ support and was reunited with her on a Russian state television program. He returned briefly to the United States before moving back to Russia permanently. He told Komsomolskaya Pravda that he missed his American family and phoned them often.
In August 2021, according to an Instagram profile in his name linked to the Facebook profile, he received a Russian passport. In 2022, when Russia mobilized more than 300,000 men to fight in Ukraine, Romanov Woodland posted a message to family and friends on Facebook saying that he did not support the war but that if mobilized, “I will not turn away.”
According to the Facebook profile, Romanov Woodland attended Saranac Lake Senior High School in northern New York state and Massanutten Military Academy in Virginia and worked as a prep cook at Dillon Dam Brewery in 2020 before moving to Russia.
Natalia Abbakumova contributed to this report.
