A Moscow court has charged a Russian citizen suspected of spying for the CIA with high treason.
The arrest comes weeks after a shipyard worker was deported to Ukraine for allegedly working with Ukrainian security forces. In September, two Russian citizens were arrested in Crimea on suspicion of passing information about Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to Kiev.
The state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported on Tuesday that Russian national Alexei Zhitnyuk was suspected of giving the CIA sensitive information relating to the Russian Navy.
Zhitnyuk was arrested on Nov. 30 and will be kept in custody until Jan. 29, court spokesperson Yekaterina Krasnova was cited as saying by the Interfax news agency.
“The defense already appealed this decision,” she was cited by Interfax as saying, though she added that the appeal date had not been set.
The court did not provide additional information about the case because of its “top secret” status.
