Moscow sentences Russian diplomat to 12 years for passing secrets to U.S. intelligence

MOSCOW, Dec 26 (Reuters) - A Moscow court sentenced a former Russian diplomat to 12 years in a maximum-security penal colony for selling secrets to U.S. intelligence while on a posting to the United States, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that Arseniy Konovalov, born in 1987, had been found guilty of treason.

"It was established that A.S. Konovalov, an employee of the Russian Foreign Ministry, during a long-term foreign assignment in the United States, proactively transferred secret information to American intelligence for money," the FSB said in a statement.

Konovalov was detained by the FSB, which leads Russian counter-intelligence, in March 2024. The TASS news agency published video of a shocked-looking Konovalov being detained while travelling in a van and told he was suspected of treason.

The FSB did not say what information Konovalov had passed to U.S. intelligence, or which U.S. agency he was accused of working with. There was no immediate comment from U.S. spy agencies.

Russia's Kommersant newspaper said Konovalov had served as second secretary of the Russian Consulate General in Houston. He worked in the United States from 2014 to 2017, Kommersant said.

($1 = 77.5500 roubles)

(Reporting by ReutersWriting by Anastasia Teterevleva Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Peter Graff)