MOSCOW. July 3 (Interfax) - French citizen Laurent Vinatier (designated as a foreign agent), who has been arrested in Russia for gathering military information, communicated with officials, researchers and military experts, the Federal Security Service (FSB)'s public relations center said.
"Vinatier established numerous contacts with members of the expert and academic community such as political analysts, sociologists, economists, military experts and others, and civil servants during his visits to Moscow," the center said in a statement seen by Interfax on Wednesday.
While communicating with those categories of persons, "the French citizen, in particular, gathered military and military-technical information that could be used by foreign security services to the detriment of Russia's security," it said.
The Russian Investigative Committee said, for its part, that "seven witnesses, the defendant met with to gather information about Russian military and military-technical activity, have been questioned" in the criminal case.
"A forensic linguistic analysis of audio recordings of those meetings has been scheduled. Detectives have examined results of investigative procedures and equipment seized from the defendant," the committee said.
On June 7, Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky District Court upheld an investigator's motion and placed Vinatier under arrest until August 5 on counts of dodging the duties imposed by the Russian foreign-agent law.
The court found that Vinatier had pled guilty.
The offense is punishable with a fine of up to 300,000 rubles, community service of up to 480 hours, correctional labor of up to five years, or imprisonment for up to five years.