And another nail in the coffin of U.S.-Russian relations.

The latest victim of the Kremlin’s psychotic roundup of dissidents and enemies — real or imagined — is not an American or other foreigner to be held as collateral for a future swap, but a Russian citizen. Robert Shonov, 62, worked for 25 years at the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok, until being forced to leave in 2021 due to new Russian restrictions on local staff working for foreign missions. He then found a job with a company that provided services as a private contractor to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow — entirely within the parameters of Russian law.

And today — after already spending about a year and a half in “detention” since his arrest in 2023 — he stands convicted of “confidential collaboration with a foreign state,” and sentenced to four years and ten months in prison, plus a fine of one million rubles ($10,280). He will then spend another year and four months on parole restrictions following completion of the nearly five-year sentence. [RFE/RL, November 1, 2024.]

He is accused of collecting information on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the associated mobilization efforts, and of analyzing their potential impact on public protest activities leading up to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, for the benefit of the United States government. [Id.]

Because of the nature of the charges — despite the fact that Shonov is not a U.S. citizen — the case has created a further exacerbation of the ever-worsening relations between the United States and Russia.

The U.S. State Department has, of course, condemned the arrest, characterizing the charges as baseless, saying that Shonov’s “only role at that time of his arrest was to compile media summaries of press items from publicly available Russian media sources.” [U.S. Department of State Press Statement, May 16, 2023.]

In addition, in connection with the same case, Moscow expelled two U.S. Embassy diplomats — First Secretary Jeffrey Sillin and Second Secretary David Bernstein — in September 2023, accusing them of acting as liaisons for Shonov.

*. *. *

It’s all just becoming SSDD: Same Sh*t, Different Day — disturbingly reminiscent of the years between the end of World War II and the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.

Accusations of spying, insults, threats, expulsion of diplomats, prisoner exchanges . . . I wonder how long it will be before someone — Russia or the U.S. — finally acknowledges that we are engaged in Cold War, Part Two.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
11/2/24