Former employee of the US Embassy in Russia, Robert Shonov, was detained in Vladivostok, he was charged with confidential collaboration with a foreign state, international or foreign organization (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code), informed TASS in reference to law enforcement.
The agency’s interlocutor clarified that the operational search actions that led to Shonov’s arrest were carried out jointly by police officers and the FSB. The man was questioned and charged, after which he was taken into custody. He faces a sentence of up to eight years in prison.
According to the source, FSB investigators have filed a petition with the Lefortovo court in Moscow to extend Shonov’s arrest for another three months. The court’s press office said the date for the hearing on the motion has not yet been set.
Telegram channel “Attention, news” clarifies that Shonov is 62 years old and had previously been an employee of the US Consulate in Vladivostok, having been registered for a job at the US Embassy. According to the channel, the man was taken into custody at the Lefortovo remand center in Moscow, and the dates of his detention and arrest are unknown.
Article 275.1 – on secret cooperation with foreigners against the security of the country – was included in the Russian Criminal Code in the summer of 2022 in addition to the main article 275 on treason. Cooperation means “establishing and maintaining secret contact” with a foreign intelligence service or organization, their representatives “in order to assist them in activities known to be directed against the security of Russia”. These are violations that fall outside the definition of treason, but the specific actions for which a criminal case may be opened are unknown.
In October, a certain Pavel Pischulin was arrested under a new article; the decision to arrest was also made by the Lefortovo court in Moscow. In February 2023, two residents of Sevastopol were also arrested using it, who allegedly offered Ukrainian special services to buy data on objects from the Russian Ministry of Defense from them. In March, this article was attributed to a resident of the Novgorod region who, according to the FSB, persuaded the mobilized Russians of treason, urging them to transfer information about the deployment of military units to the Ukrainian side, to steal military equipment and to surrender .
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