Moscow | AFP and Portal
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) on Monday accused Robert Chonov, a former US consulate employee in Vladivostok, of illegally leaking information about the Ukraine war to two Washington diplomats.
According to the Tass news agency, the FSB released a video of Chonov’s confession. The man, a Russian citizen, is accused of secretly collaborating with a foreign state.
According to Matthew Miller, a US State Department spokesman, Chonov has been jailed since May and has served as the US representative in Russia’s Far East for more than 25 years. However, in April 2021, the Kremlin banned Russian citizens from working for American diplomatic missions in the territory.
Still, according to Miller, after leaving the consulate, the man performed services for a private company contracted by the US Embassy in Moscow, “in strict accordance with the laws and regulations of Russia.”
“Like any diplomatic mission in the world, US embassies contract local services. Mr. Chonov’s only function at the time of his arrest was to give press conferences for state newspapers. His accusation of ‘confidential cooperation’ underscores how Russia is using its increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens,” the State Department statement said.
Miller also condemned what he called bullying. “We strongly protest against attempts by Russian security services to intimidate and harass our employees,” he says.
In a statement, the FSB alleges that Chonov was in contact with Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein and performed tasks for them from September 2022 until his arrest, in exchange for a “material reward.”
The Kremlin accuses the Russian citizen of gathering information about the “special military operation” — the way Vladimir Putin’s government still relates the Ukraine war today, more than a year and a half after the conflict began — forced conscription, in various Regions of the country and the impact of public demonstrations in Russia on the eve of the 2024 presidential election. The security service also says it plans to interrogate two American diplomats, Sillin and Bernstein.
According to the Russian press, Chonov is reportedly being held in Lefortovo prison in Moscow. The same place where Evan Gerchkovitch, an American journalist of Russian descent who worked for the American outlet The Wall Street Journal, is being held awaiting trial.
Gerchkovitch was arrested a few weeks before Chonov and charged with gathering classified military information for the US, which the Wall Street Journal denies. Amid harassment of journalists and persecution of the country’s press, his case was the hardest of its kind since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine Gerchkovitch became the first American journalist to be jailed for espionage in Russia since the Cold War.