Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Russian FSB state security services has said on Monday, it had detained an American citizen charged with spying in Moscow and in fact filed a criminal case against that detained person.

According to news reports, the FSB said that the American had been arrested on Friday, but did not gave any further details of his alleged espionage activities, and according to Russian law, it can carry between 10-20 years of life imprisonment in jail. A United States state department representative confirmed that Russia had detained a US citizen and is also expected to give him a consular access.

The representative said, “We have requested this access and expect Russian authorities to provide it,” without giving any further details of the identity of the detained person or even the reason behind the arrest.

The English-language service of TASS news agency named him as Paul Whelan.

There were an online speculations that Whelan had worked for the global staffing firm Kelly services. A spokesperson of Kelly services said Paul Whelan had only worked for the company till February 2016.

Kelly spokesperson Heather Klee said: “Kelly has yet to confirm whether this former employee is the same individual reported upon in the news stories.”

Earlier this month, a Russian national Maria Butina was pleaded guilty in an apex court of the US to a conspiracy charge in deal with the prosecutors, and also admitted working with top Russian official in order to infiltrate American conservative activists group and also politicians, as an agent for Russia.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *