Romanoff-Woodland worked as an English teacher, according to a Facebook profile bearing his name and date of birth. He was adopted as an orphan from Perm by American couple Marcia and David Woodland when he was two years old in 1993, he told Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in December 2020.
He said his birth name was Roman Romanov, and his date of birth was December 7, 1991. He returned permanently to Russia in 2020, according to his Facebook profile and the press interview.
The newspaper quoted him as saying: “The truth is that I am not an American at all, but rather a Russian.”
The US State Department accused Russian authorities of illegally detaining two Americans in Russia. Ivan Gershkovitch, 33, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, was arrested last year and charged with espionage. Paul Whelan, 53, a security consultant, was jailed in 2018, convicted of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020. Both men and the Foreign Office have strongly denied the accusations.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Russian and American officials were holding talks about Gershkovitch, but he denied reports that Moscow had rejected an offer to release him. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said talks were ongoing regarding Gershkovich and Whelan.
WNBA star Brittney Griner was arrested in February 2022 for carrying a vape oil that contained traces of cannabis. She was convicted in August of that year and sentenced to 9 and a half years in prison. In December 2022, she was exchanged for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was convicted and imprisoned in the United States.
The State Department did not immediately comment on Romanov-Woodland's arrest.
Russian media outlet Telegram MASH, known for its closeness to Russian law enforcement, reported that the case against Woodland Romanov related to the production of illegal drugs, which could carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Romanov-Woodland told Komsomolskaya Pravda that his parents, American scientists, adopted him after they saw a video of him playing at the orphanage and that they loved him and his adopted sister “very much.” After graduating from college, he got a job washing dishes in a hospital kitchen.
He tracked down his mother, Galina Romanova, with the support of his adoptive parents, and met her on a Russian state television programme. He returned briefly to the United States before returning to Russia permanently. He told Komsomolskaya Pravda that he misses his American family and calls them often.
In August 2021, according to an Instagram profile linked to his Facebook profile, he obtained 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 he did not support the war but if he was mobilized, “I will not back down.”
According to his Facebook profile, Romanov-Woodland attended Saranac Lake Senior High School in upstate New York and Massanutten Military Academy in Virginia and worked as a prep cook at Dillon Dam Brewery in 2020 before moving to Russia.
Natalia Abakumova contributed to this report.
