2023-09-14 14:12:00
The Foreign Ministry summoned the US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, to express a strong protest due to “the incompatibility with the diplomatic status of the actions of the first secretary of the US embassy, J. [Jeffrey] Silin and the second secretary of the embassy, D. [David] Bernstein”.
“The US ambassador was told that J. Sillin and D. Bernstein must leave Russian territory within seven days as ‘persona non grata,'” said the Russian diplomatic authority.
According to the statement, these people were in contact with Robert Shonov, a former employee of the US Consulate General in Vladivostok, accused of high treason by the Russian authorities.
Specifically, Sillin and Bernstein paid Shonov for “tasks aimed at harm national security of the Russian Federation”.
The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that “the illicit activity of the American diplomatic mission, including interference in internal affairs, is inadmissible and will be resolutely suppressed.
“Russia hopes that Washington will draw the correct conclusions and refrain from taking confrontational steps,” the note concludes.
According to the FSB, he had been collecting information for months on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine, the mobilization of reservists throughout Russia, current problems and their impact on the potential for Russians to protest ahead of the elections. 2024 presidential elections.
Shonov himself stated during the interrogation that Bernstein had “set the goal of finding journalists, businessmen and politicians loyal to the United States to use them in information collection tasks”.
The detainee is charged with the crime of confidential collaboration with a foreign State as defined in article 275.1 of the Russian Criminal Code. According to some information, Shonov’s arrest occurred last March, but his identity was revealed to the media two months later, in May.
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