BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S ATTITUDE TO DETENTION OF US CITIZEN JOHN TOBBIN IN RUSSIA








WASHINGTON, MARCH 1, 2001, /from RIA Novosti Correspondent Arkady Orlov/ -- The US Administration intends to clear up the "exact circumstances" of the detention of US citizen John Tobbin in Voronezh late in January  and for that purpose has established contact with Russian officials and Tobbin's lawyer.


	The RIA Novosti correspondent reports that journalists learned this in Washington on Wednesday from Richard Boucher,  US State Department spokesman, who said that the US Embassy in Moscow is in contact with the Russian side and one of the  embassy employees had already visited Tobbin.


	Boucher also declared that he believes that Tobbin's detention in Russia 'has nothing to do" with last week's detention in the United States of high-ranking FBI agent Robert Hanssen, for Tobbin's arrest in Voronezh preceded Hanssen's detention by several weeks.


	The US State Department spokesman described the assumption that in Tobbin's case there may be a connection with Hanssen and Edmond Pope as "absurd."