An American has been detained in Russia in an espionage case about which few details are known, Russian news agencies report.
Gene Spector, an American of Russian descent, has been charged with espionage, pleaded guilty and entered into an agreement to cooperate with detectives, according to the Interfax agency.
The US citizen can be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison.
For its part, Ria Novosti’s office specified that the case was classified by the Russian authorities and its details are not known.
In September 2022, Gene Spector had already been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for corruption, in a case involving a former aide to former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovitch, who was also convicted by the court.
A first conviction in this corruption case, in 2021, was overturned on appeal and sent back to court in July 2022 for a new trial.
According to the TASS agency, Gene Spector was born and raised in Russia before settling in the United States, where he obtained citizenship.
He held the position of chairman of the board of directors of the Russian group of companies Medpolimerprom.
In recent years, several US citizens have been arrested and sentenced to harsh sentences in Russia, with Washington accusing Moscow of wanting to trade them for Russians held in the United States.
In December 2022, American basketball player Brittney Griner, convicted of drug trafficking in Russia, was released in exchange for Viktor Bout, a prisoner for Russian arms trafficking in the United States.
American journalist Evan Gershkovich, of the Wall Street Journal, was arrested in March while reporting in Yekaterinburg, in the Urals, on charges of espionage, a charge he denies.
Source: DN
