Russia sentences former US consulate worker to nearly 5 years in prison

MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Russia’s far-eastern city of Vladivostok has convicted a former U.S. 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 U.S. 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, partial call-up in Russian regions and its influence on “protest activities of the population in the runup to the 2024 presidential election.” The U.S. State Department last year condemned the arrest and said the allegations against Shonov “are wholly without merit.”