A court in Russia's far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former US consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the US government to harm Russia's national security and had jailed him for nearly five years.
Russia's FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russian national, in Vladivostok in May 2023 and accused him of taking money to covertly supply US diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia.
The State Department said at the time that his case highlighted Russia's "blatant use of increasingly repressive laws" against its own citizens and said the allegations against Shonov were "wholly without merit".
A court in the Primorsky region in Russia's far east confirmed in a statement on Friday that it had found Shonov guilty and had sentenced him to four years and 10 months in a penal colony.
Video of the verdict being read out, released by the court, showed Shonov listening inside a courtroom cage as the judge sentenced him.