Russia Sentences Former US Consulate Worker to Nearly 5 Years in Prison

FILE - In this photo taken from video released by Lefortovo District Court, Robert Shonov, a Russian national who worked at the now-closed US consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years, is escorted by officers to the court room at the Lefortovo District Court in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Lefortovo District Court via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo taken from video released by Lefortovo District Court, Robert Shonov, a Russian national who worked at the now-closed US consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years, is escorted by officers to the court room at the Lefortovo District Court in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Lefortovo District Court via AP, File)
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Russia Sentences Former US Consulate Worker to Nearly 5 Years in Prison

FILE - In this photo taken from video released by Lefortovo District Court, Robert Shonov, a Russian national who worked at the now-closed US consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years, is escorted by officers to the court room at the Lefortovo District Court in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Lefortovo District Court via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo taken from video released by Lefortovo District Court, Robert Shonov, a Russian national who worked at the now-closed US consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years, is escorted by officers to the court room at the Lefortovo District Court in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Lefortovo District Court via AP, File)

A court in Russia's far-eastern city of Vladivostok on Friday convicted a former US Consulate worker charged with cooperating with a foreign state and sentenced him to four years and 10 months in prison.
Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen and former employee of the US Consulate in Vladivostok, was arrested in May 2023. Russia's top domestic security agency, the FSB, accused him of “gathering information about the special military operation" in Ukraine, a partial call-up in Russian regions and its influence on "protest activities of the population in the runup to the 2024 presidential election.”
The US State Department last year condemned the arrest and said the allegations against Shonov “are wholly without merit,” The Associated Press reported.
Shonov was charged under a new article of Russian law that criminalizes “cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state, international or foreign organization to assist their activities clearly aimed against Russia’s security.” Kremlin critics and human rights advocates have said it 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.
The State Department has said Shonov worked at the US Consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years. The consulate closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and never reopened.
The State Department has said that after a Russian government order in April 2021 required the dismissal of all local employees in US diplomatic outposts in Russia, Shonov worked at a company the US contracted with to support its embassy in Moscow.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in May 2023 that Shonov’s only role at the time of his arrest was “to compile media summaries of press items from publicly available Russian media sources.”
Shonov was held in the Lefortovo Prison in Moscow, notorious for its harsh conditions, pending investigation, but stood trial in Vladivostok's Primorsky District Court.

In addition to a prison term, which Shonov was ordered to serve in a general regime penal colony, the court ruled that he must pay a fine of 1 million rubles (just over $10,000) and face additional restrictions for 16 months after finishing his prison sentence.



Russia Says US Using Taiwan to Stir Crisis in Asia

Participants wave Taiwanese flags during the Kuomintang (KMT) National Congress in Taoyuan on November 24, 2024. (Photo by Yu Chien Huang / AFP)
Participants wave Taiwanese flags during the Kuomintang (KMT) National Congress in Taoyuan on November 24, 2024. (Photo by Yu Chien Huang / AFP)
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Russia Says US Using Taiwan to Stir Crisis in Asia

Participants wave Taiwanese flags during the Kuomintang (KMT) National Congress in Taoyuan on November 24, 2024. (Photo by Yu Chien Huang / AFP)
Participants wave Taiwanese flags during the Kuomintang (KMT) National Congress in Taoyuan on November 24, 2024. (Photo by Yu Chien Huang / AFP)

The United States is using Taiwan to provoke a serious crisis in Asia, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told TASS news agency in remarks published on Sunday, reiterating Moscow's backing of China's stance on Taiwan.
"We see that Washington, in violation of the 'one China' principle that it recognises, is strengthening military-political contacts with Taipei under the slogan of maintaining the 'status quo', and increasing arms supplies," Rudenko told the state news agency.
"The goal of such obvious US interference in the region's affairs is to provoke the PRC (People's Republic of China) and generate a crisis in Asia to suit its own selfish interests."
The report did not cite any specific contacts that Rudenko was referring to.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a claim that Taiwan's government rejects. The US is Taiwan's most important international backer and arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic recognition.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Rudenko's remarks outside office hours.
In September, President Joe Biden approved $567 million in military support for Taiwan. Russia responded that it was standing alongside China on Asian issues, including criticism of the US drive to extend its influence and "deliberate attempts" to inflame the situation around Taiwan.
China and Russia declared a "no limits" partnership in February 2022 when President Vladimir Putin visited Beijing shortly before launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, triggering the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.
In May this year, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged a "new era" of partnership between the two most powerful rivals of the United States, which they cast as an aggressive Cold War hegemon sowing chaos across the world.