The Russian Security Services (FSB) have accused a former official of the US embassy in Russia of "cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state or an international or foreign organization", the Russian state news agency Tass reports, citing sources in Russian law enforcement agencies according to which the accused person is in custody after being arrested. The alleged allegations against the former US embassy official are not independently verifiable nor are TASS statements verifiable.
According to the Guardian, citing Tass, the Russian secret services arrested Robert Shonov, a former employee of the US consulate in that city, in Vladivostok and accused him of illegal secret collaboration with foreigners, a crime punishable by up to eight years in prison. The man is now being held in Moscow's notorious Lefortovo prison.
Relations between Moscow and the United States are quite tense and have further deteriorated since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. In recent years, there have been several cases of American citizens being arrested in Russia on charges that Washington considers politically motivated.