‘I Don’t Know Why I’m Here’: US Musician Arrested Over Drug Charges in Russia

An American musician living in Moscow who once criticised Russian censorship on TV has appeared in court after being arrested on charges of drug dealing.

The US State Department confirmed the arrest of Michael Travis Leake, a music producer and singer in a rock band called Lovi Noch who has lived in Moscow since at least 2014.

Russian state media said police found drugs, zip lock bags and scales in a raid, and later said the drug involved was mephedrone, a popular, cheap cocaine alternative in Russia.

A court statement from Saturday described Leake as a “former paratrooper” and said he is accused of “engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people”.

When police raided his apartment last week, Leake reportedly told officers: “I don’t understand why I’m here. I don’t admit guilt, I don’t believe I could have done what I’m accused of because I don’t know what I’m accused of.”

Speaking to CNN, Leake’s mother Glenda Garcia said she was worried. She said she usually spoke to Travis every two weeks and that she knew he was in a band and taught English in Moscow.

In 2014 Leake appeared in an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, filmed in Moscow, where he spoke against media censorship in Russia.

“Travis and his friends had been very vocal about the freedom of speech and state oppression in Russia. Bourdain really liked that interview,” the producer of that episode Darya Tarasova told CNN. 

“Travis was a showman, very articulate and he loved Russia. But I’m surprised he stayed after the war [in Ukraine] started, as it was very risky for him.”

Leake is the latest in a string of US citizens arrested or jailed in Russia over the last three years.

In March Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested on charges of spying and remains locked up in pre-trial detention in a Moscow prison.

In February 2022, a week before Russia invaded Ukraine, WNBA star Brittney Griner was stopped at Moscow airport carrying cannabis vapes and later sentenced to nine years for drug smuggling. She was released in December last year in prisoner swap for Russian arms dealer Victor Bout.

In August 2021 teacher Marc Fogel was detained at a Moscow airport in possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis, recommended by a doctor to treat a spinal condition. Fogel, who taught children of US diplomats abroad, was sentenced to 14 years in prison in June 2022 and remains in detention.

In June 2020 businessman and former US Marine Paul Whelan was convicted of spying and jailed for 16 years, a sentence criticised at the time by US officials as a “mockery of justice.”

The Russian authorities have a track record of finding drugs on purported enemies of the state.

In 2019, for example, Russian anti-corruption journalist Ivan Golunov was arrested and taken to a Moscow police station where 3.5 grams of mephedrone was found in his backpack and he was charged with drug dealing.

However, Golunov's case sparked protests and outcry in the Russian media and the case was dropped and the officers suspended.