SCHOLAR, STONER, SPY?

I n the case of John Tobin, a 24-year-old Fulbright Scholar suspected in
Russia of espionage and currently on trial there for marijuana possession,
one of two film scripts apply. Either it's "Midnight Express", the story of
a foolish young American who breaks the stringent drug laws of a
third-world country and consequently spends many years in a brutal prison.
Or it's "Gotcha!", the story of an innocent young American who gets caught
behind the Iron Curtain in a web of international intrigue. Whichever way,
what the case suggests about the current state of Russia is not encouraging.

The facts of the case are these: On Jan. 26, Mr. Tobin was arrested outside
a nightclub in Voronezh, a city about 800 kilometers southeast of Moscow;
local police charged he was carrying a matchbox full of dope. The charges
were later expanded to include drug dealing when police found another small
packet of marijuana in Mr. Tobin's apartment. Also taking note of the case
were local Federal Security Service (FSB) officials, who suggested Mr.
Tobin, a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont and of the Defense
Language Institute in California, was a "spy in training." They did not,
however, make a formal indictment.

Mr. Tobin, who is being housed in a TV-less six-man cell and must sit
inside a cage during trial proceedings, insists on his innocence. The
matchbox, he says, was planted; the packet belonged to his roommate
(luckily on vacation at the time of the arrest); a urine test he took that
came up positive was the result of drug use in Amsterdam; he "never saw
anyone in my apartment using drugs." Friends of Mr. Tobin demur, saying
they had seen him roll marijuana cigarettes on a couple of occasions. But
one police witness acknowledged under cross examination that the amount of
drugs found on Mr. Tobin had been exaggerated by a factor of 10, leading
prosecutor Marina Galagan to drop the drug-dealing charge. Now the "pale
and hollow-cheeked" defendant may serve a mere four years in prison instead
of 30. The trial ends today.

Now, if this were just another case of another American running afoul of a
host country's well-known drug laws, we would not feel our heartstrings
pulled. But Mr. Tobin's case belongs in another category. His arrest came
only a week after U.S. counterintelligence expert Robert Philip Hanssen was
caught spying for Russia and the Bush Administration decided to expel
dozens of Moscow's "diplomats" from Washington. Whether or not Mr. Tobin is
guilty, his case clearly has less to do with upholding Russia's rule of law
than promoting someone's idea of a foreign policy.

The question is: Whose? It may well be that a local FSB agent read about
Mr. Hanssen over breakfast, turned to his wife and said: "I'm going to get
us out of this dump." Or it could be that someone much higher up turned to
his deputy one day and said: "Get me a bargaining chip." Last year's trial
of cancer-stricken American Edmond Pope on dubious espionage charges means
it wouldn't be the first time this has happened.

In other words, policy in Russia is being set either by people with no
competence or people with no scruples. Poor John Tobin is being forced to
pay the price.

- - From The Wall Street Journal Europe