US citizen sentenced to 15 years for espionage in Russia

The trial of Eugene Spector has taken place behind closed doors due to the classified nature of the materials in the case

A Moscow court has sentenced US citizen Eugene “Gene” Spector to 15 years in prison after finding him guilty of espionage. He will serve his sentence at a maximum security penal colony, the judge ruled at a hearing on Monday.

Spector, who is the former chair of the board of Russia’s Medpolymerprom Group, which supplies disposable medical items, was also fined f14 million rubles (around $139,300).

The defendant was handed the punishment in conjunction with his previous sentencing for acting as an intermediary in a bribery case involving an aide of former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

The trial in the Moscow City Court was held behind closed doors due to the materials of the case being classified.

The sentence has not yet entered into force, meaning Spector’s defense are able to appeal to the ruling.

In 2022, the US citizen of Russian origin was handed 3.5 years behind bars for providing Dvorkovich’s aide, Anastasiya Alekseyeva, with free trip vouchers between 2015 and 2016 in order for her to promote the products of several pharmacy companies.

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A court ordered the arrest of Spector on suspicion of espionage in August last year. The details of the case against the 51-year-old had not been disclosed to the public.

This August, Russia and the US exchanged a total of 26 prisoners held in several countries, in the largest such deal since the end of the Cold War. Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan – both of whom were convicted of espionage in Russia – were sent to the West as well as 14 other foreign agents, opposition activists, and criminals.

In return, ten Russian nationals, whom Washington accused of being intelligence agents and cybercriminals, were delivered to Moscow. The most prominent name on the list was Vadim Krasikov, an FSB agent who was convicted of the murder of a former Chechen militant commander in Germany in 2021.