Russia Arrests Mysterious American Who Arrived On A Dinghy From Alaska

Russian authorities said they were holding an American man who arrived on its far eastern Pacific coast by dinghy, having apparently sailed all the way from Alaska.

The BBC reported that the man—named by Russia’s foreign ministry as 72-year-old John Martin, from Anchorage, Alaska—was found, exhausted, near Lavrentiya, a coastal village in the Chukotka region, having crossed the Bering Strait, which separates the U.S. from Russia.

According to a report by state-backed Russian news agency Tass, U.S. diplomats were working with Russian officials to resolve the situation. Martin’s motives were unclear; Tass said he did not ask for asylum when he was discovered on August 1.

The U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok, the major city on Russia’s Pacific coast, said it would provide assistance to the man. “We know about this situation. We are working with local authorities and are providing the U.S. citizen with consular services,” a spokesperson for the mission told another Russian news agency, Interfax.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry, claimed Martin “traveled down the Yukon River in Alaska in his personal one-seat boat.” Zakharova said the man had decided to take to the sea about two weeks ago, but “due to inclement weather and because he lacked navigation equipment, he spent several days in the open sea. This is how he ended up in the Russian Federation.”

Interfax quoted a source close to the investigation, who said the man had been fishing along the Alaskan coast and decided to sail to China. Instead, he ended up on the very eastern tip of Russia, several thousands of miles away from the Chinese coast.

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