Robert Shonov, recognized as a former worker of the U.S. Embassy in Russia, was arrested within the Russian metropolis of Vladivostok and charged with conspiracy, based on the Russian state news company Tass.
Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesman, advised reporters at a briefing on Monday that he had seen the report however that “I don’t have anything additional to offer at this time.”
Tass, quoting an nameless legislation enforcement official, stated that Mr. Shonov was accused of “collaboration on a confidential basis with a foreign state or international or foreign organization.” He has been taken to Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, Tass reported, and no court docket date has been set.
Being held in isolation is commonplace at Lefortovo, a infamous high-security jail whose inmates at present embrace Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who was accused of espionage in March, costs that his employer and American officers have strongly denied. Also being held on the jail is Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who’s serving a 16-year sentence on what the United States has stated are fabricated costs of espionage.
In the Soviet period, the Ok.G.B. stored Soviet dissidents on the jail, and it has been used extra just lately to isolate opponents of the Kremlin.
Source: www.nytimes.com