A Russian court found a former U.S. consulate employee guilty of conspiring with a foreign government and sentenced him to four years and 10 months in prison, according to a report.
Russia's security services arrested Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen and former worker at the U.S. consulate in Vladivostok, in May 2023, the Associated Press reported Friday.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow rejected the charges against Shonov as "completely false and unfounded."
"The criminal prosecution of Mr. Shonov only underscores the campaign of intimidation the Russian government is increasingly taking against its own citizens," the embassy said in a statement, the AP said.
Shonov worked at the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years, the State Department said.
After the Russian government ordered the consulate closed in April 2021 and the dismissal of all local employees, Shonov was employed by a company contracted to provide services to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
At the time of his arrest, the State Department said Shonov's job was to compile media summaries of press items from publicly available Russian media sources.
