MOSCOW - Russia said Tuesday it had arrested a U.S. citizen on drugs charges but added fuel to recent spy spats with the United States by saying the detainee had links to the intelligence services.
A U.S. diplomatic source denied any suggestion that the man, named by Russia's FSB domestic security service as John Edward Tobbin, had worked as a spy and said he was ``just out of college.''
Russian-U.S. ties have been overshadowed in recent months by a series of espionage rows. Most recently, a senior FBI officer was arrested on a charge of spying for Moscow for 15 years.
The FSB said in a statement that Tobbin, a post-graduate student at Voronezh University, was arrested on February 1 when he was buying drugs. But an FSB officer said Tobbin was clearly linked to the U.S. intelligence services.
``At the moment of his arrest, he showed resistance to the police. Narcotic substances were also found in the apartment he rented,'' the FSB statement said.
It said Tobbin had been in Voronezh, a town where many foreigners study, as a Fulbright scholar with a letter of recommendation from the State Department.
The FSB said Tobbin had studied Russian at a ``U.S. Defense Ministry Institute in Monterey,'' and then at a military intelligence school in New Mexico.
The statement said Tobbin had some kind of security clearance but did not elaborate further.
However, Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a Voronezh FSB officer as saying that Tobbin was in Russia to train for work for the U.S intelligence services.
``The investigation has obtained documentary material which shows Tobbin's link with the U.S. special services,'' Interfax quoted Voronezh FSB spokesman Pavel Bolshunov as saying.
``The Russian security services believe the American was, apparently, carrying out work to familiarize himself with the country and language before receiving his main assignment,'' the FSB officer added.
He said other U.S. citizens with a State Department recommendation were probably in Russia for the same purpose.
Tobbin's lawyer made no mention of any spying charges.
``He has been charged...under suspicion of holding drugs,'' lawyer Vladimir Kulinich told state-owned RTR television.
``We are aware that an American citizen has been arrested in Voronezh,'' said a U.S. embassy spokesman, adding that he could give no further details. ``He is in prison and we are talking to Russian officials and his attorney.''
The U.S. diplomatic source gave Tobbin's age as 22 or 23 and denied he had worked as a spy.
The source said Tobbin had already been visited once by U.S. consular officials and that another meeting was due this week.
The source said the court had already denied bail to Tobbin but that an appeal against the refusal was due Tuesday.
Although the FSB made no espionage allegations against Tobbin, accusations of spying between the United States and Russia have remained common in the post-Soviet era.
As recently as last week, the United States charged suspected Russian spy Robert Hanssen, a 25-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with selling documents and betraying secrets in the last 15 years in his post.
The case of Edmond Pope, convicted by Russia of spying and given to 20 years in jail, ended only after he was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in December and allowed to return home.