A 24-year-old American student accused by the authorities of training to be a spy went on trial Tuesday on drug charges. John Tobin, a Fulbright scholar from Ridgefield, Connecticut, faces 15 to 20 years in prison if convicted of the charges, which include organizing a drug den, distribution of marijuana to a group and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, his lawyer Vladimir Bayev said.

Tobin, pale with dark circles under his eyes, told Judge Tatyana Korchagina that he was innocent of the charges.

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The trial of an American on drug charges opened in Voronezh, in central Russia. John Tobin, left, a 24-year-old Fulbright scholar, faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted. He denies any wrongdoing and says marijuana found in his apartment was planted by the police. The security force also says he was training to be a spy, but admits there are no grounds to prosecute him.

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MOSCOW - Investigators working on the case of a 24-year-old American Fulbright scholar charged with using and selling marijuana are looking for another American in the case, security officials said Friday.

John Tobin, a native of Ridgefield, Conn., was arrested last month on charges of drug possession, but was later accused of dealing drugs, then of dealing drugs as part of a criminal gang, a crime that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years.

In a case that comes amid a spy war between Russia and the United States, the Federal Security Service said Tobin had U.S. intelligence training. No espionage charges have been filed.

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MOSCOW -- An American student who was cleared of espionage charges and charged with possession of marijuana may instead face more serious drug charges, Russian police authorities indicated Monday.

It was not clear whether the case of the student, John Edward Tobin, 24, was taking a more serious turn in the wake of last week's decision by the Bush administration to expel 50 Russian diplomats from the United States for alleged espionage activity. Given Tobin's reserve status in a U.S. Army intelligence unit, it seemed likely that his case might be complicated by the larger espionage dispute between Russia and the United States as Moscow prepared to retaliate with its own expulsions.

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MOSCOW -- An American student who was investigated on suspicion of espionage and charged with possession of marijuana may instead face more serious drug charges, Russian police authorities indicated today.

It was not clear whether the case of the student, John Edward Tobin, 24, was taking a more serious turn because of last week's decision by the Bush administration to expel 50 Russian diplomats for what Washington calls espionage activity.

But given that Mr. Tobin is in a Army Reserve intelligence unit, it seems likely that his case has been complicated by the spying dispute.

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MOSCOW: Having cleared an American student, John Tobin, of any espionage charges, the Russian police indicated Monday they would charge him with a more serious violation of Russia's drug laws after marijuana was allegedly found in his possession.

It was not clear whether the case of Mr. Tobin, 24, was taking a more serious turn following the decision last week by the Bush administration to expel 50 Russian diplomats from the United States for alleged espionage activity.

But given Mr. Tobin's reserve status in a U.S. Army intelligence unit, it seemed likely Monday that his case might be complicated by the larger espionage dispute between Russia and the United States as Moscow prepared to retaliate with its own expulsions.

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HIV Babies Become The Latest Chapter In The Tragedy That Is Drug Abuse In Today's Russia.

IRKUTSK, Russia - When the special infants' ward in the Infectious Disease Hospital in Irkutsk opened two years ago, the first arrival was tiny Vanya, who had been abandoned by his mother 12 hours after being born.

Next was a desperately underweight child whom the nurses called Dima.

Then came Vladislav, newborn son of a 15-year-old heroin addict.

Now, the roster numbers 18 children between 4 months and 2 years old who share two traits: having been born infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, and having been abandoned by a drug-addicted mother.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov drew a catastrophic picture Tuesday of rocketing drugs use in Russia and warned the trend put the country's future in jeopardy.

Drug addiction was spreading fastest among young people and brought deadly diseases such as AIDS (news - web sites) in its wake, he said. Drugs-related crime was also on the rise.

"The health of the generation which is due to take over from us is in danger," Kasyanov was quoted by Interfax news agency as telling a government meeting which discussed how best to tackle the problem.

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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.

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MOSCOW, Feb. 27 -- The Russian domestic security agency announced today that it has arrested an American student on drug charges and hinted broadly that he might be a spy in training, a disclosure some saw as a response to last week's capture of alleged FBI turncoat Robert P. Hanssen.

John Edward Tobin, a Fulbright scholar conducting post-graduate studies in southern Russia, was imprisoned a month ago, long before Hanssen was accused of being a double agent for Moscow. But Russian authorities publicized Tobin's case today with a flourish, even providing Russian television with footage of the arrest.

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MOSCOW (AP) -- A day after publicizing the drug arrest of what it called an agent-in-training for American intelligence, Russia's Federal Security Service said Wednesday that no espionage charges would be filed.

The agency had suggested that John Edward Tobin, a 24-year-old native of Ridgefield, Conn., had U.S. intelligence training. It said his arrest showed that potential spies could be found even under cover of exchange students.

But a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, known by its Russian acronym FSB, stressed on Wednesday that Tobin faced only drug charges.

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MOSCOW (Associated Press) -- Russian security officials on Tuesday announced the arrest on drug charges of a U.S. Fulbright scholar they alleged had intelligence training -- and said it was a reminder that Russia must be vigilant for foreign spies.

John Edward Tobin, a 24-year-old graduate student at Voronezh State University in central Russia, was detained while purchasing drugs, the Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in a statement.

He was charged with illegal possession of drugs, which can bring up to three years in a Russian prison, said Pavel Bolshunov, an FSB spokesman in Voronezh.

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A US citizen alleged to have links with the intelligence services has been arrested in Russia while buying drugs, the state security service said on Tuesday.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) said John Edward Tobbin was seized in a cafe on 1 February, and that drugs had also been found in the flat he rented in the city of Voronezh, 475km (300 miles) south of Moscow.

They said he had been trained an a US intelligence centre, but this did not form part of the charge against him.

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Drug Abuse, HIV And Tuberculosis, Combined With The Old Scourge Of Alcoholism, Are Lowering Russia's Population

In his 20 years on this earth, Dima has seen a lifetime of abuse. At 16 he shot his first heroin, and in the years since he has lived on and off the streets of St. Petersburg. What life is left for him is likely to be brutal and short. "I can't say this is how I hoped to die," he says. "But at least I'll have plenty of company where I'm going."

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MOSCOW - In rare criticism within Russia of President Vladimir Putin's policies in Chechnya, a leading liberal politician yesterday said Russia's army in the region is falling apart as a fighting force, and is afflicted by alcoholism and drug addiction.

Boris Nemtsov, head of the Union of Right Forces faction in parliament, said Russia should end the war by opening negotiations with Chechen guerrilla leaders.

The comments came after Nemtsov met with a rebel envoy in the southern Russian city of Nazran on Saturday in what some saw as a back door contact for Russia's government with the rebel forces.

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MOSCOW--The story of the most romantic fallen woman in literature has undergone a modern make-over in Russia's first comic-book treatment of a classic novel.

Convertible cars, cocaine and sushi bars provide the backdrop for the reworking of Anna Karenina, set in the present day and casting its characters as members of Russia's idle rich.

The novel's heroine is depicted as a femme fatale with a mobile phone, a taste for luxury lingerie and, by the end of the comic, a drug habit that drives her to suicide.

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United Nations: Former Cold War Rivals Seek To Tighten Sanctions On Afghan Leaders To Flush Out Bin Laden.

UNITED NATIONS--The United States and Russia are joining forces to ban weapon sales to Afghanistan's Taliban regime in an effort to close terrorist training camps in that country and flush out Saudi militant Osama bin Laden.

Frustrated by inaction by the Taliban since limited international sanctions were levied last year--and spurred by Bin Laden's alleged connection to the October bombing of the U.S. destroyer Cole in Yemen--Washington wants to increase the pressure on the radical Islamic regime to cooperate.

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MOSCOW (AP) - Drug use in Russia is spreading so rapidly that the Kremlin regards it as a threat to national security, the head of the Russian Security Council, said Wednesday.

The rate of drug-related crimes has risen 14-fold over the past decade, with more than 200,000 such crimes registered in the past year, Sergei Ivanov said at a national drugs conference held at Danilov Monastery, the seat of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Some 4 million of 145 million Russians use drugs and about half are considered addicts, Public Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- A woman was injected from behind with a sedative after she became agitated at a meeting of families of the sunken Kursk submarine crew, television footage released yesterday shows.

The footage clearly reveals a nurse administering an injection to a woman who shook with rage after a prolonged outburst of anger during a session with a deputy Russian prime minister last week.

The shot was administered openly in front of a hall full of people and there was no evidence that any attempt was made to conceal the action.

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ST. PETERSBURG -- Police have detained two people for selling weight-loss pills containing chemicals classified in Russia as addictive mind-altering substances, the use of which is prohibited or highly restricted.

The dealers, a man and woman, both around 40, were detained last week while trying to sell a pack of the pills to an undercover drug-squad detective during a routine police check of classified ads offering products that can only be sold with a license. Over 1,000 pills were seized from the pair, whose names police refused to disclose.

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