Russia jails IT specialist for 13 years for spying for the United States

A Russian court has jailed an IT specialist for 13 and a half years on treason charges for trying to pass secrets to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Tuesday.

Russian media said the man, Firuz Dadoboev, has dual Russian and American citizenship.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said Dadoboev tried to pass illegally obtained state secrets to a representative of the CIA. Video published by Russian media showed him being detained near woodland in October 2022.

"It was established that F. T. Dadoboev, having information obtained illegally and constituting a state secret, guided by criminal intent, intended to transfer it to a representative of American intelligence," the FSB said.

"For this purpose, he established contact with the CIA."

The FSB said that he had admitted his guilt. No more detail was available on what information he was accused of trying to pass to the CIA.

The CIA did not immediately comment. It was not possible to contact Dadoboev.