Evgeny “Eugene” Spector, an American citizen, was sentenced to 15 years in a high-security prison by the Moscow City Court on espionage charges on December 24, according to Interfax, a Russian news agency.
The Russian Security Service, or FSB, said Spector obtained material from Russia “in the interests of the Pentagon to create a system for genetic screening of the Russian population,” Interfax reported on Friday.
“We are aware of allegations that a United States citizen has been sentenced in Russia. “We are monitoring the situation and have no further comment at this time,” a State Department spokesperson told AWN. “Nothing is more important to the Department of State than the safety and security of American citizens abroad. We will continue to advocate for fair and transparent treatment of all US citizen detainees in Russia and around the world.
The Pentagon declined to comment, referring all inquiries to the State Department.
“The American, acting in the interests of the Pentagon and a commercial organization affiliated with it, collected and transferred to a foreign party various information on biotechnological and biomedical topics, including information constituting a state secret, for the subsequent creation by the United States of a high-speed genetic screening system for the Russian population,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported on Friday.
According to Interfax, the punishment has not yet taken effect and may be appealed. The court did not disclose how Spector pleaded to the allegations. The trial was conducted behind closed doors “due to the secrecy of the case materials,” according to Russian official media.
According to Interfax, Spector was detained in a case involving bribery to the former aide to Arkady Dvorkovich, the former deputy prime minister of the Russian Federation, before being charged with espionage in August 2023.
Spector was sentenced to three and a half years in a maximum-security prison for acting as an intermediary in a bribe to Dvorkovich’s aide.
The espionage punishment was handed down in combination with Spector’s earlier bribery conviction, according to Russian state media. Spector received a 13-year term on espionage charges, which was coupled to his prior bribery sentence, resulting in a new 15-year sentence, according to Russian state media.
On Tuesday, the presiding court ordered Spector to spend an aggregate 15-year sentence in a maximum-security penitentiary colony as punishment for both cases, according to TASS, a Russian state news agency.
Prior to his imprisonment, Spector served as chairman of the Medpolymerprom Group’s board of directors, which specializes in cancer-curing pharmaceuticals. Spector was born in Russia and later moved to the United States.
On Friday, the US State Department revealed to AWN that another American serving a prison sentence in Russia was found to have been “wrongfully detained” by Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this year.
Marc Fogel, an American instructor who was imprisoned in Russia on narcotics allegations in 2021, is now serving a 14-year term.
A State Department spokeswoman stated that the US has been attempting to obtain Fogel’s release and included him in the massive prisoner swap on August 1 that freed Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan, among others.
According to the spokeswoman, Blinken found Fogel was illegally held in October, and there could be a multitude of reasons why the department did not make the determination public.
