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The US-Russian is taken away by the FSB
Photo: Russian Federal Security Service / ITAR-TASS / IMAGO
Russia's domestic secret service, the FSB, says it has arrested a 33-year-old woman with US and Russian citizenship in Yekaterinburg in the Urals on suspicion of treason. The suspect, who lives in the US metropolis of Los Angeles, is in custody because she collected money for a Ukrainian organization and used it to work against Russia's security, the FSB in Moscow said. Accordingly, the woman is said to have collected donations for an organization that then purchased material for the Ukrainian armed forces. The FSB did not present any evidence to support the allegations.
According to the FSB statement, the money was used to purchase medical supplies, equipment and ammunition. In the USA, the woman took part in “public actions in support of the Kiev regime” several times. The investigation was ongoing, it said.
A video distributed by the state news agency Ria Novosti shows a young woman wearing a white jacket and a white cap pulled down over her eyes being handcuffed by a hooded FSB agent.
Russia is repeatedly criticized in the USA for specifically persecuting and imprisoning the country's citizens in order to then exchange them for prisoners. Kremlin critics accuse the Moscow power apparatus of “taking hostages” with the aim of blackmailing Russian prisoners abroad. In the past, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin freed imprisoned Russian criminals in the USA through an exchange with Americans convicted in Moscow.
In March last year, US journalist Evan Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg for alleged espionage. He has been in custody ever since. Putin recently stated that if an agreement was reached with the USA, Russia would be prepared to exchange the correspondent of the renowned US newspaper "Wall Street Journal" for Russians in captivity. The Wall Street Journal had denied all allegations against its reporter and called for his release.
czl/dpa/AFP