Robert Shonov (L) and his lawyer in court in Vladivostok, 1 November 2024. Photo: Primorsky Region Joint Press Service
A court in Russia’s Far East has sentenced a Russian man who previously worked at the US consulate in Vladivostok to four years and 10 months behind bars after finding him guilty of “cooperating with a foreign state”, the court press service said on Friday.
Robert Shonov, a 63-year-old Russian citizen who worked at the US Consulate in Vladivostok for over 25 years, was arrested in March 2023 on suspicion of assisting US Embassy staff in “activities knowingly directed against the security of the Russian Federation”.
Shonov, who, according to the Vladivostok court that ordered his arrest, “disagreed with the Russian Armed Forces’ special military operation in Ukraine”, is alleged to have worked as an informant who carried out paid assignments for Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein, two political officers at the US Embassy in Moscow.
According to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Shonov’s assignments included collecting information on the “progress of the special military operation” and the progress of mobilisation, as well as researching how ready ordinary Russians were to protest against the government in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
The FSB later released a video of Shonov admitting that Sillin and Bernstein had tasked him with gathering “negative information” on the war and the election, and “identifying protest sentiments” among Russians.
In a statement, the US State Department condemned the arrest of Shonov and dismissed the allegations against him as being “wholly without merit”, stressing that his sole responsibility at the consulate had been compiling summaries of Russian news outlets.
In September 2023, the Russian government declared Sillin and Bernstein persona non grata citing what it called their “illegal activity” with Shonov. In April, Shonov was declared a prisoner of conscience by Russian human rights group Memorial.
