Moscow accuses Russian citizen of collecting information for US diplomats

Russia’s top domestic security agency is accusing a local employee of the U.S. consulate in Vladivostock of collecting information for American diplomats, according to the AP. 

Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, is accusing Robert Shonov 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 Associated Press reported. 

The FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB intelligence service, said it served summonses to question two U.S. diplomats that it alleges instructed Shonov to collect the information. 

The State Department did not immediately return a request for comment.

Shonov’s arrest was first reported in May, although Russian authorities provided no details at that time. The U.S. had condemned his arrest at the time.

The charges against Shonov come from a new article in 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,” the AP reported.

Critics of the law say it allows the Russian state to prosecute crimes against a broad swath of the public who have any foreign connection. The law carries a prison sentence of up to eight years, per the AP. 

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said in May that the allegations against  Shonov are “wholly without merit.”

“Mr. Shonov’s only role at the time of his arrest was to compile media summaries of press items from publicly available Russian media sources,” Miller said and added that the arrest “highlights the Russian Federation’s blatant use of increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens.” 

Miller said that Shonov had worked for the U.S. consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years. The consulate was closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian government in April 2021 forced the termination of locally-employed staff at U.S. missions in Russia. 

Shonov continued work for the U.S. mission in Russia by working for a company that contracted with the U.S. government to support its embassy in Moscow, Miller said. 

The AP, citing Russian news reports, said that Shonov is being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison.

Also being held in Lefortovo is Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist for the Wall Street Journal who was arrested on March 29 by Russia’s security service on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government have denied.