A Ukrainian citizen convicted of espionage has been sentenced to 11 years at a strict-regime penal colony by a Moscow court, Russian media reported on Tuesday.
Valentin Vygovsky was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2012, amid allegations that he had been recruiting and bribing employees of aircraft- and spacecraft-producing companies in order to obtain classified information, the Vesti.ru news site wrote Tuesday.
Vesti.ru quoted FSB sources as saying that Vygovsky had admitted the charges. They did not, however, specify for which foreign state he had allegedly been working, the report went on to say.
According to the website Gazeta.ru, he had reached an agreement with the investigators before the case — now marked as “top secret” — went to court.
His lawyers are now preparing to file an appeal, the Gazeta.ru news portal reported.
Vygovsky's detention was first reported by the press in early 2015, when the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry published a list of Ukrainian citizens it considered had been unlawfully detained and kept in Russia, according to the website Lenta.ru.
The list included the captured pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, accused of abetting the killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine last year, and the filmmaker Oleg Sentsov detained in Crimea on terrorism charges along with several other Ukrainian citizens.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.
