FULBRIGHT STUDENT MAY FACE MORE SERIOUS DRUG CHARGES

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.

In a diplomatic note Friday, the Foreign Ministry said it was
expelling four Americans, though it did not initially provide their
names to the U.S. Embassy. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday
that more information about the expulsions would be delivered through
diplomatic channels.

In the police case against Tobin, a native of Ridgefield, Conn., a
senior investigator in Russia's prosecutor's office, Andrei Makarov,
said that Tobin, already charged with simple possession of marijuana,
would now face charges of being part of a drug ring. If convicted, he
could face 15 years in prison. Makarov said Tobin's alleged
accomplices were American citizens who were no longer in the country.

Tobin was pursuing graduate studies at Voronezh State University in
southwestern Russia under the State Department's Fulbright scholars
program. Though he was in Russia as a private citizen, Tobin also is a
trained interrogator who holds the rank of Army Reserve specialist in
the 325th Military Intelligence Battalion in Waterbury, Conn. He
studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif.

Tobin was arrested Feb. 1 after he had been questioned by police in
Voronezh on Jan. 25. The night he was arrested, police said they found
a half ounce of marijuana in his possession. A search of his apartment
yielded another 1.5 ounces, police said.

Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service,
initially took an interest in Tobin's case, but later said there were
no grounds for espionage charges.