Russia detains former UK embassy security guard on suspicion of ‘high treason’

- Federal Security Service claims individual, a Russian citizen, collected information about employees of the diplomatic mission ‘in interests of Ukraine’s Security Service’

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Thursday that it detained a former security guard of the British Embassy in Moscow on suspicion of “high treason” for gathering information for Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU). The FSB said in a statement that its personnel detained the individual, a Russian citizen born in 1981, during “counterintelligence operations,” and that a criminal case has been opened against him on suspicion of “high treason.” The statement said that the Russian national, on the instructions of a Ukrainian blogger and “in the interests of the SBU,” was documented to have collected information regarding personnel of the diplomatic mission such as personal identification, addresses, and vehicles used, among others. It claimed that Ukraine sought to use this information to “prepare and carry out acts of sabotage and terrorism” against diplomats from the British diplomatic mission, and then accuse Russia in order to draw the UK into a direct armed conflict with the country, as well as securing additional military supplies to Kyiv and further intensify sanctions on Moscow. “The Russian FSB will continue to counter the activities of foreign intelligence services using all available methods,” the statement said. Neither British nor Ukrainian authorities immediately commented on the FSB statement.