Russia jails ex-diplomat over US intel links
A Russian court has convicted former Foreign Ministry employee Arseny Konovalov of treason for passing secrets to US intelligence, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced.
In a statement on Friday, the agency said Moscow City Court had sentenced Konovalov to 12 years in a high-security penal colony and a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,260).
Konovalov reportedly served as Second Secretary at the Russian Consulate General in Houston from 2014 to 2017. In the video of the 38-year-old’s arrest in March 2024, on suspicion of collaborating with foreign intelligence services, an officer can be heard asking, “Do you know what happened?” To which Konovalov answers, “yes.”
According to the FSB, Konovalov “voluntarily” transferred classified information obtained in the course of his duties as a Foreign Ministry employee in the US to the host-country’s spies, for which he was paid.
The FSB said the criminal case was investigated under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code (high treason) but did not release details on the information Konovalov is accused of sharing with US intelligence.
Russian courts have recently handed down treason convictions in other cases, largely, linked to Ukrainian intelligence. Earlier this week, a 38-year-old Kaluga resident was sentenced to 13 years for passing information about the deployment of Russian air defense units in the region to Kiev.
In early December, Artem Khoroshilov, a former employee of the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was sentenced to 21 years in a maximum-security penal colony for treason. He was accused of funding Ukrainian entities, including the Ministry of Digital Development, hacking critical computer systems, and plotting sabotage on a railway section in Russia.
