RUSSIAN SECURITY SERVICE RULES OUT SPY CHARGES FOR U.S. STUDENT

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.

"He didn't ever carry out any spying activity on Russian territory. We
don't have any claims on him," said Pavel Bolshunov, an FSB spokesman in
Voronezh, the central Russian city where Tobin has been jailed.

Tobin was detained at a nightclub on Jan. 26, and was formally arrested on
Feb. 1 for possession of 4.5 grams of marijuana. Bolshunov said Wednesday
that Tobin will also be charged with distributing marijuana.

Under Russian law, this could mean either selling the drug or offering it
free to friends, and carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

"The bags of narcotics were small, but by our laws it was enough to open a
criminal case. This is not Holland, we have strict laws," Bolshunov said.

Bolshunov said the FSB "allowed itself to comment on the case," which he
described as "small," because it found Tobin's alleged background as a U.S.
army soldier trained in Russian language and interrogation suspicious. He
said Tuesday that the FSB believed Tobin was an interrogation specialist
who had been sent to Russia for additional country and language training.

Tobin, a Fulbright scholar, was doing research for a political science
thesis on Russia's transition to democracy at the Voronezh State
University, 300 miles south of Moscow.

Bolshunov said it was an embarrassment that the alleged U.S.
agent-in-training was caught apparently smoking marijuana while on a study
assignment in a foreign country.

"He discredited very serious institutions that might stand behind him,"
Bolshunov said.

Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent security and defense analyst in Moscow,
said the suggestion of espionage links was a warning for foreign
organizations working in Russia, such as the Fulbright exchange program.

"Those who sent him can be accused of being accomplices in spying activity,
even if they have no access to secret information," he said. He said the
arrest reflected anti-American sentiment among midlevel officials in
Russia's security establishment.