MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) - Russian citizen Alexei Zhitnyuk, who, according to media reports, was arrested by Moscow's Lefortovsky District Court on charges of high treason, worked in the Moscow police until 2015 and was recruited by Norwegian citizen Frode Berg after he left the police and went to work for a private company, a source told Interfax.
Zhitnyuk previously served in the interior affairs department of the Moscow Northeastern Administrative District. In 2015, he left his service and went to work for the security service of a Moscow company that had a contract with the Navy for the supply of electronics, the source said.
Some time later, Zhitnyuk was recruited by Norwegian citizen Frode Berg, to whom he started giving material and information to which he had access through his job.
Operatives learned about their relationship, and they were caught red-handed when they met in late November, the source said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Lefortovsky District Court's spokeswoman, Ekaterina Krasnova, told Interfax that the court has put a Norwegian citizen under two-month arrest on espionage charges.
"On December 6, the court put Norwegian citizen Frode Berg under arrest until February 5 under Article 276 [espionage] of the Russian Criminal Code," Krasnova said.