US accuses Russia of intimidation after former US consulate worker arrested

The State Department accused Moscow of trying to "intimidate and harass" U.S. employees after the Russian Federal Security Service said it had arrested a former U.S. consulate worker on espionage-related charges.

The Federal Security Service said Monday that it had "stopped the illegal activities of an informer" identified as Robert Shonov, a former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok. He was charged with a new law making it illegal to cooperate on a "confidential basis with a foreign state," per the security agency.

Shonov is accused of working with U.S. diplomats to collect information about the Russian military and protests in the nation.

"The allegations against Mr. Shonov are wholly without merit," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Tuesday.

Critics have said the new law that Shonov was charged under is so broad that Russia could use it to punish any citizen with foreign connections, according to The Associated Press. 

Shonov worked at the consulate in Vladivostok for more than 25 years, but the consulate closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and never reopened.

After the Kremlin in April 2021 ordered all local employees in U.S. diplomatic outposts in Russia to be dismissed, Shonov began working with a company that the U.S. contracted with for work in its Moscow embassy.

Moscow's security service also said it plans on interrogating U.S. diplomats in the matter. 

Shonov is reportedly being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, which is the same place that Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is being held.  

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