American With Alleged Spy Link Held in Russia
M O S C O W, Feb. 27 -- Just days after the arrest of a top FBI agent accused of spying for Russia, a U.S. Fulbright scholar arrested in a Russian town on drug charges is fueling further spy claims.
John Edward Tobbin, a postgraduate student at a university in the southeastern Russian town of Voronezh, was arrested Feb. 1 during an alleged drug deal, a spokesman for Russia's domestic security service, the Federal Security Service (FSB), said today.
Tobbin was arrested "in the process of purchasing 15 joints of marijuana," said FSB spokesman, Pavel Bolshunov, who also added there were several witnesses, "who saw Tobbin using drugs."
The Voronezh district court today rejected Tobbin's lawyer's motion to have him released from jail in favor of imposing a requirement that he not leave the country.
FSB sources claim Tobbin was an "experienced user" whose neighbors often complained of the "goings-on" in his apartment.
Dark Hints
But the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet KGB, has strongly hinted Tobbin may have had connections to U.S. intelligence agencies. "Russian intelligence services believe, that he was undergoing standard political and linguistic orientation before receiving his main assignment," Bolshunov said today.
"As much as we would like to think otherwise, the fact remains — we cannot exclude that more Americans with connections to U.S. intelligence are currently in Russia, with State Department recommendations. The FSB must remain vigilant."
According to the FSB sources, Tobbin arrived in Voronezh, a town popular with foreign students, last year to write a paper on the changing political priorities of Russians during the last decade.
Prior to his arrival, FSB sources claim, he trained at Fort Jackson, S.C., the largest U.S. basic training base in 1994-95 and received a Russian language certificate from the U.S. Defense Ministry Institute in Monterey, Calif., in 1996. He then entered the military intelligence school in Fort Huachuca, Aziz. and received a diploma as an interrogation expert, FSB sources said.
