The FSB security service has accused Robert Shonov, a Russian national, of relaying to US embassy staffers in Moscow information on how Russia’s conscription campaign was affecting political discontent ahead of the 2024 presidential election in Russia, according to Russian state news agency Tass.
The news emerged as Paul Whelan, a former US marine jailed in Russia over espionage charges that the US says are bogus, was seen in a rare video broadcast on Monday by a Kremlin-backed news channel.
The Biden administration has designated Whelan as “wrongfully detained”, a legal term that means that charges are baseless and that he was targeted primarily because he is an American citizen.
Regarding the Shonov case, the FSB said it planned to question US embassy employees who were in contact with Shonov, who has been under arrest since May.
State department spokesperson Matthew Miller repeated the US position on Monday that the allegations against Shonov “are wholly without merit”.
“Russia’s targeting of Mr Shonov under the ‘confidential cooperation’ statute only highlights the increasingly repressive actions the Russian government is taking against its own citizens,” Miller said in a statement, adding that Washington was aware the FSB had also summoned two diplomats working at the US embassy in Moscow in connection to the case.
“We strongly protest the Russian security services’ attempts – furthered by Russia’s state-controlled media – to intimidate and harass our employees,” said Miller.
Previously, 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.
The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Monday’s broadcast by Russian state-controlled network Russia Today, Whelan was dressed in a prison’s black uniform and matching hat, and appeared in different parts of the prison with other inmates, using a sewing machine and in the cafeteria in the footage.
“Today was the first time I’ve seen what he really looks like since June 2020,” his brother David Whelan said in an email. He said Russia Today had showed up in the prison in May to film Whelan and when he declined to participate, the prison staff retaliated against him. In the video, Whelan tells the questioner that he will not answer his questions.
The Biden administration has carried out two prisoner swaps with Russia amid frosty bilateral ties due to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Whelan was part of neither.
In April 2022, Russia released former US marine Trevor Reed, who was convicted there in 2019, in exchange for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko.
In a December 2022 prisoner swap with Russia, Washington secured the release of US basketball star Brittney Griner in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout.
This month, US secretary of state Antony Blinken spoke by phone with Whelan. The administration has repeatedly said it is doing everything it can to bring him home.
Russia is also holding American citizen and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on spying charges that carry up to 20 years in prison. He was arrested in March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.
Gershkovich, who has denied the charges, appealed on Saturday against the latest extension of his pre-trial detention in Moscow.
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