An ex-serviceman and a Russian citizen were convicted of spying in Lithuania
On Tuesday, the Siauliai District Court found a former Lithuanian Armed Forces officer and a Russian citizen guilty of espionage.
Russian citizen Sergey Moiseenko was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison; he was also convicted of the unlawful disposal of a large quantity of ammunition and explosives, as well as combat grenades.
Former Lithuanian Air Force officer, Sergei Pusin was sentenced to five years in prison for espionage, as reported to BNS (Baltic News Service) by the court’s press attaché, Vytautas Joncas, the Lithuanian Courier newspaper reports.
The Court announced that for the period from 2012 to the end of 2014, Pusin had collected and provided Russian intelligence with information about the Lithuanian Armed Forces, the activities of the NATO Air Policing Mission, the location of military units conducting operations in Afghanistan, and remotely controlled reconnaissance drones, including their missions and possible locations.
Russian intelligence was also provided with copies of documents from the Lithuanian Ministry of Defence, including personnel files of officers in the Lithuanian Air Force. Part of the documents were classified and ranked as official secret documents.
The convicts will have to serve their sentences in penitentiaries. The court also ordered the confiscation of Moiseenko’s garage and car; Pusin’s computer was already seized during prior searches.
Lithuanian citizen, Ainas Kazlauskas, who was accused of the illegal possession of explosives, hand grenades, and ammunition, was placed on probation for two years and eight months. The execution of this punishment is postponed for two years. Kazlauskas was not indicted for espionage.
As reported in June 2016, the Security Service of Ukraine caught 35 Russian spies over the previous year.