Former US embassy employee detained in Russia

Robert Shonov was a former US embassy employee and has been arrested by Russia’s Federal Security Service.

He has been charged with Collaboration on a confidential basis with a foreign state or foreign state organisation. He could face up to eight years in prison.

Also being held at Lefortovo prison, a former KGB prison is American journalist Evan Gershkovich who has been charged with spying while working as a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal.

Another American, who was also in the jail, is former US marine, Paul Whelan. He was handed a 16-year sentence in 2020 after he was arrested on suspicion of spying in 2018. However, the US has said that the charges against both men are “baseless.”

Whelen is now serving his sentence for what the US say are “fabricated charges” in a forced labour camp several hundred miles away from Lefortovo prison in Mordovia.

Mr Shonov was arrested in Vladivostok and Russian officials have asked to detain him for three months, but at present no court date has been fixed and the US embassy says they are aware of the reports but that they “have nothing to say, at this time.”