A Moscow military district court found a former Russian intelligence officer, who helped U.S. authorities uncover a Russian spy ring last summer, guilty of high treason on Monday.
Ten Russians, including media star Anna Chapman, were arrested in the United States in June 2010 on suspicion of espionage. They pled guilty to conspiring to act as unregistered foreign agents and were deported to Russia in exchange for four men accused by the Kremlin of spying for Britain’s MI6 and the CIA.
According to the prosecution, Alexander Poteyev is responsible for uncovering the Russian illegal agents in the United States.
Poteyev fled to the United States with his family shortly before the arrest of the sleeper agents was made public. His case was heard in absentia.
According to his lawyer, Dmitry Mikhailov, the prosecution asked the court to recognize Poteyev as guilty of the alleged crimes and sentence him to 25 years in prison.