Russia sentences former US consulate worker to nearly five years in prison

US had condemned arrest of Robert Shonov, who worked for more than 25 years in the now-shuttered mission in Vladivostok.

A court in Russia has sentenced a former United States consulate employee to four years and 10 months in prison for “secret collaboration with a foreign state”, state media reported.

Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen and ex-employee at the now-shuttered US mission in Vladivostok, was sentenced on Friday at the Primorsky District Court in the Far Eastern city.

The court also ordered him to pay a fine of 1 million roubles ($10,200) and face additional restrictions for 16 months after finishing his prison sentence.

Shonov was arrested in May 2023. The Federal Security Service (FSB) accused him of “gathering information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine following its full-scale invasion in February 2022

The FSB said Shonov had supplied information to US embassy staff in Moscow on how Russia’s conscription for the war in Ukraine was affecting political discontent inside Russia ahead of the country’s 2024 presidential election.

Last year, the US Department of State condemned his arrest and said the allegations against Shonov “are wholly without merit“.

He was charged under a new article that criminalises “cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state, international or foreign organisation to assist their activities clearly aimed against Russia’s security”.

Human rights advocates have said the law is so broad that it can be used to punish any Russian with foreign connections. It carries a prison sentence of up to eight years.

Shonov was held at the Lefortovo prison in Moscow following his arrest [File: AP Photo]

The State Department said that Shonov worked at its consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years. The consulate closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and never reopened.

He worked at a company the US contracted to support its embassy in Moscow after a Russian government order in April 2021 required the dismissal of all local employees in US diplomatic outposts in the country.

At the time of his arrest, his main job as a private contractor was “to compile media summaries of press items from publicly available Russian media sources”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in May 2023.

“The fact that he is being prosecuted under the ‘confidential cooperation’ law highlights the Russian Federation’s blatant use of increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens,” the State Department had said, as it accused Russia of attempting to intimidate and harass Washington’s employees.

In September 2023, Russia also expelled two US diplomats it accused of acting as liaison agents for Shonov.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies