Russia sentences former US consulate worker to nearly five years in prison
Al Jazeera
US had condemned arrest of Robert Shonov, who worked for more than 25 years in the now-shuttered mission in Vladivostok.
A court in Russia has sentenced a former United States consulate employee to four years and 10 months in prison for “secret collaboration with a foreign state”, state media reported.
Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen and ex-employee at the now-shuttered US mission in Vladivostok, was sentenced on Friday at the Primorsky District Court in the Far Eastern city.
The court also ordered him to pay a fine of 1 million roubles ($10,200) and face additional restrictions for 16 months after finishing his prison sentence.
Shonov was arrested in May 2023. The Federal Security Service (FSB) accused him of “gathering information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine following its full-scale invasion in February 2022
The FSB said Shonov had supplied information to US embassy staff in Moscow on how Russia’s conscription for the war in Ukraine was affecting political discontent inside Russia ahead of the country’s 2024 presidential election.
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