America condemned the arrest of Robert Shonov, who labored for greater than 25 years on the now-closed Vladivostok mission.
A Russian court docket sentenced a former US consulate worker to 4 years and 10 months in jail for “secret collaboration with a overseas state,” state media reported.
Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen and former worker of the now-closed U.S. mission in Vladivostok, was sentenced Friday within the Primorsky District Court docket within the Far Japanese metropolis.
The court docket additionally ordered him to pay a effective of 1 million rubles ($10,200) and face further restrictions for 16 months after finishing his jail sentence.
Shonov was arrested in Might 2023. The Federal Safety Service (FSB) accused him of “gathering data” about Russia’s battle in Ukraine following its large-scale invasion in February 2022.
The FSB stated Shonov had offered data to US embassy employees in Moscow about how Russian recruiting for the battle in Ukraine was affecting political unrest inside Russia forward of the nation’s 2024 presidential election.
Final 12 months, the US State Division condemned his arrest and stated the allegations towards Shonov had been “completely baseless”.
He was charged beneath a brand new article that criminalizes “cooperation on a confidential foundation with a overseas state, a global or overseas group to help its actions clearly directed towards the safety of Russia.”
Human rights advocates have stated the legislation is so broad that it may be used to punish any Russian with overseas connections. It carries a jail sentence of as much as eight years.
The State Division stated Shonov labored at its consulate in Vladivostok for greater than 25 years. The consulate closed in 2020 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic and by no means reopened.
He labored at an organization that the USA employed to help its embassy in Moscow after a Russian authorities order in April 2021 required the firing of all native staff at American diplomatic posts within the nation.
On the time of his arrest, his fundamental job as a non-public contractor was “compiling summaries of press articles from publicly obtainable Russian media sources,” State Division spokesman Matthew Miller stated in Might 2023.
“The truth that he’s being prosecuted beneath the ‘confidential cooperation’ legislation highlights the Russian Federation’s brazen use of more and more repressive legal guidelines towards its personal residents,” the State Division had stated, accusing Russia of trying to intimidate and harass Washington staff.
In September 2023, Russia additionally expelled two American diplomats whom it accused of appearing as Shonov’s liaison brokers.
