American With Alleged Spy Link Held in Russia

M O S C O W, Feb. 27, 2001 -- 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.

A spokeswoman for the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) told ABCENEWS.com the institute's records showed a John Edward Tobbin completed the 47-week Russian language program in 1997. She added the Russian language program was for beginners.

The DLIFLC is a foreign language training institution within the Department of Defense.

Local TV reports showed images of packets of drugs allegedly found in Tobbin's apartment as well as images of Tobbin in a defendant's metal cage at a court hearing in Voronezh.

Independent NTV television reported police detained Tobbin at "Night Flight," a nightclub in downtown Voronezh. Reports also said Tobbin was allegedly intoxicated, behaved "provocatively" and had resisted arrest.

Denying Spy Links

A U.S. diplomatic source in Moscow told Reuters the embassy was aware of the arrest and said, "We are talking to Russian officials and his attorney."

Although the source could give no further details, he gave Tobbin's age as 22 or 23 and denied he had worked as a spy.

A State Department official told ABCNEWS the department was aware of the arrest and that a U.S. consular affairs official had visited Tobbin in Voronezh last week. Another visit was scheduled for March 6.

Tobbin's arrest comes in an atmosphere of heightened suspicions between the Russian and U.S. intelligence community barely a week after FBI agents tracked and arrested suspected Russian spy Robert Hanssen in a spectacular crackdown culminating in Hanssen's arrest in a Virginia Park, Feb. 18.

The Hanssen arrest was preceded by the long-standing case of Edmund Pope, a U.S businessman who was convicted of spying and sentenced to 20 years in jail. That case ended with Russian President Vladimir Putin pardoning Pope in December.

State Department deputy spokesman Philip Reeker told ABCNEWS there was no link between Tobbin and the Hanssen spy case. He also dismissed any suggestion the Fulbright program was a front for espionage.

In a statement released to the press, the Fulbright program in Moscow said there were more than 40 Fulbright scholars studying in Russia today. Joseph McCormick, head of the Fulbright program office in Moscow said it was the first time a Fulbright scholar had been detained in Russia.

The Fulbright program is a 50-year-old State Department program under the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs whose candidates are screened by their host institution.

ABCNEWS' Serguisz Morenc in Moscow, Phuong Nguyen in Washington and ABCNEWS.com's Leela Jacinto in New York contributed to this report.