PORTLAND – A Russian college student who attempted to rob a fast-food restaurant where he worked has been ordered back to Russia, but will not have to go to prison.

Aleksandr Razumovksiy, 22, pleaded guilty Friday to three misdemeanor charges and promised to leave the country within seven days. In exchange, the state agreed to drop robbery, kidnapping and criminal threatening charges that could have landed him in prison for up to 20 years.

Razumovksiy and a co-worker, Rodion Syrnev, were charged in September with robbing the South Portland Wendy’s where they worked.

But the state’s case began to fall apart because two witnesses were guest workers at the restaurant who have since returned to Jamaica and wouldn’t be available to testify.

Assistant District Attorney Julia Sheridan said the best the state could hope for was a plea agreement that forces Razumovksiy to permanently leave the country at his own expense. Sheridan said she plans to offer the same deal to Syrnev, who was not in court Friday.

“We had little confidence in our ability to go to trial,” she said.

Superior Court Justice Thomas Delahanty sentenced Razumovksiy, who was in the United States on a student visa, to three consecutive one-year sentences, with all but three months suspended. That’s how long he has already served in the county jail since his arrest, so he was scheduled to be released Friday.

Razumovksiy’s lawyer, Robert Levine, said the plan to rob the restaurant was “half-baked.”

According to court records, the men demanded $5,000 so they could buy a car and drive to California. But when they were told there wasn’t that much cash in the restaurant, they left and said they’d return the next day.

“I don’t know what they were thinking,” Levine said. “They had no place to go. I don’t know how they thought they could get away with it.”