Russia sentences man for spying for the US

Russian-Tajik dual citizen Firuz Dadoboev has been sentenced to over 13 years in prison, after the Moscow City Court found him guilty of spying for the US, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Tuesday.

According to the agency’s statement, the 47-year-old worked as an IT specialist at a private firm in Moscow. The FSB said it discovered that at some point during his work, Dadoboev gained access to classified documents, which he planned to pass on to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

“It has been established that Dadoboev, having information obtained illegally and constituting a state secret, and guided by criminal intent, intended to hand it over to a representative of US intelligence. For these purposes, he established a contact with the CIA,” the FSB said in a statement.

The man was detained by the FSB in October 2022 while attempting to hand over the documents he obtained to his CIA contact, the agency added. Following his arrest, the agency filed a lawsuit against him under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code on charges of high treason, which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Dadoboev has since admitted his guilt and “repented of his actions,” the statement went on to say. On Monday, he was sentenced to 13 years and six months in a maximum-security penal colony and a fine of 300,000 rubles ($3,070).

The FSB did not reveal the nature of the documents he was trying to pass on to the US, and did not say whether his CIA contact was apprehended.

Earlier this month, the agency reported that it apprehended another foreign intelligence asset allegedly working for the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). A 51-year-old Russian citizen whose name has not been revealed was arrested in Crimea after allegedly performing a courier task on the SBU’s orders. The investigation is ongoing, and the suspect faces three to eight years in prison on charges of “confidential cooperation with a foreign state,” according to the FSB.