A Russian man working for a state-owned firm was arrested for allegedly planning to pass sensitive information to Poland in exchange for help in fleeing the country, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday.
Russian security services have detained a slew of foreigners and Russian citizens accused of working for foreign intelligence since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The FSB security services said the man had developed contacts with Polish security services “with the aim of transferring information about the activities of the enterprise” where he worked.
It claimed the man intended to pass the information to Warsaw so the state-owned firm could be targeted in air attacks from Ukraine.
He was detained in western Russia’s Penza region and hoped to secure “assistance in his departure for permanent residence in a foreign country.”
The FSB said the man gave a confession and released a video to Russian news agencies showing NATO patches, a copy of the Polish constitution and Ukrainian language books that were allegedly found in his apartment.
It said a criminal case on treason charges had been opened, with the man facing a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.