Russia detains man on treason charges over alleged SBU links

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has detained a 46-year-old man on suspicion of high treason, accusing him of acting as an agent for Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) and collecting sensitive military and infrastructure data in southern Russia.

In a statement cited by TASS, the FSB’s Public Relations Centre said it had “identified and thwarted the unlawful activities of an agent of Ukrainian special services” who gathered information that could be used “to the detriment of the security of our country.”

According to the FSB, the suspect — a resident of Anapa born in 1980 — “proactively established contact with a representative of the SBU to assist in sabotage and terrorist activities.” The agency said that “on instructions from his handler, the man, in particular, recorded radio signal levels in areas of interest around military facilities for use by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in planning missile and bomb attacks.”

Authorities said the man also collected intelligence on the arrival schedules of government officials and foreign delegations at restricted sites in Sochi, as well as the locations of air defence systems and details of security arrangements.

A criminal case has been opened under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code (high treason), and the suspect has been placed in pre-trial detention, the FSB said.

By Tamilla Hasanova