Russian court extends detention of ex-US consular employee
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A newly installed direction sign "Donetsk People's Republic Square" is seen in front of the US embassy in Moscow in June 2022.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MOSCOW – A Moscow court on Tuesday extended for three months the detention of a former United States consular employee accused of gathering information for Washington on the war in Ukraine and other issues, Tass news agency reported.
Tass quoted the press service of the Lefortovo court as saying that a three-month extension requested by investigators until Nov 23 had been granted for the detention of Robert Shonov, a Russian national.
The Tass report said Shonov had acknowledged his guilt in passing on information to the US diplomats.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller on Monday repeated the US position that the allegations against Shonov were “wholly without merit”.
Mr Miller said the action against Shonov “only highlights the increasingly repressive actions the Russian government is taking against its own citizens”.
Shonov was employed by the US Consulate General in the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok for more than 25 years, until Russia in 2021 ordered the termination of the US mission’s local staff.
Washington says he was subsequently employed via a company contracted to the US embassy to summarise news reports.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said it plans to question US embassy employees who were in contact with Shonov, who has been under arrest since May.
The FSB said Shonov relayed information to US embassy staffers in Moscow on how Russia’s conscription campaign was impacting political discontent ahead of the 2024 presidential election in Russia.
Mr Miller said Washington was aware the FSB had also summoned two diplomats working at the US embassy in Moscow in connection to the case. REUTERS
