The Russian Foreign Ministry declared two secretaries of the American Embassy in Moscow, Jeffrey Sillin and David, persona non grata Bernstein< /span>, according to the department’s website.
US Ambassador to Russia Lynn Tracy was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on September 14 and “made a tough demarche with the presentation of an official note regarding the incompatibility of the actions” of Sillin and Bernstein with the diplomatic status, the ministry said in a statement. They will have to leave Russia within seven days.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both diplomats conducted “illegal activities” by maintaining contact with former US consulate employee in Vladivostok Robert Shonov. In the spring, he was detained by FSB officers in the case of cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state (Article 275.1 of the Criminal Code).
According to the intelligence service, which it announced in August, Shonov has been “carrying out tasks for material compensation” since September 2022 US Embassy employees Sillin and Bernstein — collected data on the course of the war in Ukraine, mobilization, as well as “problematic issues” and their impact on “protest activity of the population.”
At the same time, state news agencies showed a video of Shonov’s detention in Vladivostok. At the entrance of a high-rise building on Sabaneev Street, security forces dressed in the uniform of public utility employees were guarding him with a stepladder. They took Shonov into a minibus and handcuffed him. The same video included footage of Bernstein visiting courts in Moscow (he regularly went from the embassy to political trials).
On August 23, the FSB sent subpoenas to the US Embassy for interrogation of both diplomats. Representatives of the diplomatic mission did not comment on the detention of Shonov and the summoning of their employees for questioning.