Russia’s home safety service mentioned on Monday {that a} former worker of the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok had been charged with illegally accumulating details about the warfare in Ukraine and passing it to American officers.
The Federal Safety Service, or F.S.B., introduced the costs towards Robert Shonov, a Russian nationwide who was detained in May. The costs carry a punishment of three to eight years imprisonment.
A State Division spokesman, Matthew Miller, mentioned in an announcement that the allegations towards Mr. Shonov have been “wholly with out advantage” and that the arrest “solely highlights the more and more repressive actions the Russian authorities is taking towards its personal residents.”
“We strongly protest the Russian safety companies’ makes an attempt — furthered by Russia’s state-controlled media — to intimidate and harass our workers,” he mentioned.
Mr. Miller mentioned that Mr. Shonov had labored for the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok for 25 years and started working for a personal contractor for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in April 2021, after the Russian authorities ordered the firings of all Russian employees at U.S. diplomatic missions within the nation.
Mr. Miller mentioned that Mr. Shonov’s job had been to jot down summaries of reports media studies “from publicly accessible Russian media sources,” and that his employment was “in strict compliance with Russia’s legal guidelines and rules.”
In its assertion on Monday, the F.S.B. mentioned that it was looking for to query two workers of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, whom it accused of directing Mr. Shonov’s actions.
Mr. Shonov’s arrest got here amid tensions in U.S.-Russian relations over President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s detention in March of Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Avenue Journal. Mr. Gershkovich has been accused by the Russian authorities of espionage and is being held in pretrial detention, which was extended final Thursday to a minimum of Nov. 30.
American officers have vehemently denied the costs towards each Mr. Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a company safety government and former U.S. Marine, who was arrested in Moscow in 2018 on espionage costs and given a 16-year jail sentence. The Biden administration considers each to be wrongly detained, or primarily political prisoners.
