Pubdate: Thu, 01 Mar 2001 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company Contact: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036 Fax: (212) 556-3622 Website: http://www.nytimes.com/ Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/ Author: Michael Wines SPY CASE ENDS FOR AMERICAN HELD ON RUSSIA DRUG CHARGE MOSCOW, Feb. 28 -- The Federal Security Service said today that it had no further interest in an American student arrested on drug charges this month, who it said on Tuesday was training to become an American military spy. But other officials indicated that they might charge the American with more serious violations of narcotics law that could lead to a lengthy prison sentence. The American, John Edward Tobin, a graduate student in Voronezh, a southwestern city, under the State Department Fulbright scholar program, was arrested on Feb. 1 outside a nightclub after the police had found what they said was a half-ounce of marijuana in his clothes. The police said a search of his apartment found an additional one and a half ounces of marijuana. His case drew little attention until Tuesday, when Voronezh officials of the Federal Security Service, the domestic arm of the former K.G.B., said Mr. Tobin had learned Russian at an American military school and been trained in interrogation at a military intelligence center in Fort Huachuca, Ariz. The officials said he was believed to be training in Russia for a future espionage mission, a contention that the State Department flatly denied. The United States Army said in a statement today that Mr. Tobin had received intelligence training, but that he was a specialist in the Army Reserve and was studying in Russia as a private citizen. American officials had refused to name Mr. Tobin, whom Russian officials had identified as Tobbin, because he has not waived his right to privacy under American law. But news reports today said that Mr. Tobin, 24, a native of Ridgefield, Conn., is an Army Reserve specialist in the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion in nearby Waterbury. Newspapers in Hartford reported that Mr. Tobin studied with the military in 1995 and 1996 and earned a bachelor's in international studies last year from Middlebury College in Vermont, an institution that offers a renowned Russian-language program. Officials of the Russian security service stuck by their assessment that Mr. Tobin was an agent in training, but said they had no more questions for him because his work here had not damaged national security. They said Mr. Tobin had told them that he was writing a thesis on changes in Russian political attitudes since the fall of the Soviet Union. He is charged with possessing drugs, which could bring a three-year jail term. Russian officials said, however, that Mr. Tobin could face a more serious charge of distributing drugs based on other witnesses' testimony. A conviction for distributing drugs, selling them or giving them to others, can mean 10-year sentence. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth