MOSCOW: A court in Russia’s far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former US consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the US government to harm Russia’s national security and had jailed him for nearly five years.

Russia’s FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russian national, in Vladivostok in May 2023 and accused him of taking money to covertly supply US diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia.

The US on Saturday condemned the conviction, calling it “an egregious injustice”. “The allegations against Mr. Sho­nov are entirely fictitious and without merit,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.

A court in the Primorsky region in Russia’s far east confirmed in a statement on Friday that it had found Shonov guilty and had sentenced him to four years and 10 months in a penal colony.

Video of the verdict being read, released by the court, showed Shonov listening inside a courtroom cage as the judge sentenced him.

The FSB published a video in Aug 2023 showing a purported confession by Shonov in which he said two senior US diplomats based in Moscow whom Russia later expelled had asked him to collect information about Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, its annexation of “new territories”, its military mobilisation and the 2024 Russian presidential election.

In the video, Shonov said he was told to gather “negative” information on these topics, to look for signs of popular protest, and to reflect these in his reports. It was not clear whether he was speaking under duress.

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2024