The US repudiates the conviction of a Russian court of a US consulate employee for espionage

MADRID Nov. 2 () –

This Saturday, the US State Department expressed its rejection of the decision of a Russian court to convict an employee of the North American consulate for the crime of espionage.

A court sentenced Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen, to four years and ten months in prison for illegally collecting information for the United States about the development of the war in Ukraine.

According to Russian security services, Shonov worked for two employees of the political department of the United States Embassy in Moscow to whom he provided confidential information about the mobilization of Russian troops and its impact on the Russian presidential elections. of 2024.

In response, the spokesperson for the US State Department, Matthew Miller, has made it known that his country “condemns the sentence handed down by the Russian Federation against Robert Shonov as a flagrant injustice.”

The case, Miller adds, “highlights the Kremlin’s use of increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens.”