Russia’s top domestic security agency said on Monday that a detained former employee of the US Consulate in Vladivostok is accused of collecting information about Russia’s action in Ukraine and related issues for US diplomats.
Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB, the country’s main domestic security agency, said Robert Shonov is suspected of “gathering information about the special military operation, mobilization processes in Russian regions, problems and the assessment of their influence on protest activities of the population in the runup to the 2024 presidential election.”
The FSB, the top KGB successor, said it has served summonses to question two US diplomats who allegedly instructed Shonov to collect the information.Shonov’s arrest was first reported in May, but Russian authorities provided no details at the time. The US State Department has condemned his arrest.
Shonov was charged under a new article of Russian law that criminalizes “cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state, international or foreign organization to assist their activities clearly aimed against Russia’s security.” Kremlin critics have said that the formulation is so broad that it could be used to punish any Russian who had foreign connections. It carries a prison sentence of up to eight years.The US State Department has said Shonov worked at the US consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years. The consulate closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened. The State Department has said that after a Russian government order in April 2021, Shonov worked at a company the US contracted with to support its embassy in Moscow.