A spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service, Alexander Mikhailov, said Captain David Lynch was picked up Aug. 3 near the plant at Krasnoyarsk-26 in eastern Siberia.
"He was of course not engaged any improper activity," State Department spokesman David Johnson said Wednesday. Lynch is an assistant professor in the department of geography and military engineering at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Johnson said he could not say exactly what Lynch was doing or under what circumstances he encountered Russian security people because U.S. representatives had not yet had a chance to talk with him.
He said Lynch was due to leave Russia on Friday to return to the United States.
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