VLADIVOSTOK. Nov 1 (Interfax) - The Primorye Territorial Court convicted Robert Shonov, former employee of the U.S. consulate general in Vladivostok, of confidential cooperation with foreign state representatives on Friday.
"The defendant was found guilty and sentenced to four years and ten months in a general penitentiary," the joint press service for Primorye courts said in a statement.
According to the statement, he was charged with confidential cooperation with representatives of a foreign state.
In addition, Shonov was fined 1 million rubles. An electronic device used in his criminal activity was seized.
A judge calls the name of Robert Shonov in the press service's video posted on Telegram. The case was heard in camera.
As reported, Shonov was detained in 2023 on counts of gathering information about the special military operation for the United States and charged with confidential cooperation with a foreign state.
According to the Federal Security Service, Shonov "was fulfilling assignments for the political department employees of the U.S. embassy in Moscow Jeffrey Sillin And David Bernstein to gather information about the special military operation, mobilization processes in Russian regions, problems and their impact on the protest activity of the population ahead of the Russian presidential election of 2024." The FSB said he was doing it for remuneration between September 2022 and the moment of his detention.