Russia sentences man to 19 years for giving FBI info on Russian troops
3 Min Read
Initially arrested in January 2023, the man from Orenburg was accused of passing information on the identity and other personal data of Russian troops to the FBI.
-
An entrance of the Lefortovo prison in Moscow, Russia, on March 30, 2023. (AP)
Russia's FSB security service announced Saturday that a man has been sentenced to 19 years of jail time for providing information on Russian servicemen to the FBI in the United States.
The unnamed man, born in 1993, was convicted of "high treason" and other counts, according to an FSB statement.
Initially arrested in January 2023, the man from Orenburg was accused of "passing information on the identity and other personal data of Russian servicemen to the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)."
The FSB announced Saturday that a regional court in Orenburg, central Russia, sentenced him to 19 years in a severe correctional colony.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian courts have issued several harsh prison sentences for treason, terrorism, and sabotage, charging people of working for Ukraine or with Western countries to disrupt Russia's objectives.
FSB arrests perpetrator of bombing that killed General Kirillov
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Wednesday the detention of the individual responsible for the attack that killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, head of the Russian armed forces' Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Troops.
The attacker, reportedly recruited by Ukrainian special services, was apprehended following a joint investigation, the FSB confirmed.
Kirillov and his aide, Maj. I.V. Polikarpov, were killed in a bomb explosion early Tuesday in Moscow, according to the Russian Investigative Committee.
An official from Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) told The New York Times that Ukraine was behind the attack.
In a statement, the FSB said it has "identified and detained a citizen of Uzbekistan, born in 1995, who detonated a homemade explosive device near a residential building on Ryazanskiy Prospekt in Moscow," which resulted in the killing of Kirillov and Polikarpov.
According to the statement, the attacker admitted to being recruited by Ukrainian intelligence, revealing that he had been directed to Moscow, where he was provided with a powerful homemade explosive device, which he later planted on an electric scooter parked near Kirillov's residential building.
To monitor the general's residence, the perpetrator rented a car equipped with a Wi-Fi camera, transmitting real-time footage to his handlers in Ukraine, the FSB noted. It revealed that the attacker was promised a $100,000 reward and relocation to an EU country in exchange for carrying out the assassination.
The FSB said the attacker faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, vowing that the Ukrainian special services personnel involved in orchestrating the attack would be identified and held accountable.
