Russia's FSB Detains, Accuses Former RFE/RL Freelancer Of Treason

Russia's main security agency detained a former Russian freelancer for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, accusing the man of treason and claiming he allegedly communicated with Ukrainian intelligence.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) did not identify the man, saying only he was born in 1960 and was detained in the Siberian region of Chita.

The agency accused the man of "transmitting information to the enemy regarding the information resources of a local print publication specializing in covering the progress of the special military operation," which is the government euphemism for the Ukraine war. It did not specify when the alleged criminal activities occurred.

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Last week, a news outlet called Chita.ru cited unnamed sources saying that a man named Aleksandr A. had been detained. The outlet identified Aleksandr as the head of a local political party.

Two other people were also detained around the same time, the outlet said.

A Telegram channel called Siberian Express, meanwhile, identified the man as Aleksandr Andreyev, who had worked for a news outlet founded by exiled oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

The Russian state news agency TASS reported the man detained was a former RFE/RL freelance reporter. Andreyev worked as a freelancer for RFE/RL's Russian Service in the early 2010s; his last contribution to RFE/RL was in 2014.

RFE/RL had no immediate comment on the reports.

For more than a decade, Russian authorities have ramped up repression of independent media, as well as civil society organizations, human rights activists, and other nongovernmental groups. Prosecutors have used a so-called "foreign agent" law as a pretext to impose onerous reporting requirements on journalists who work with outlets outside of Russia.

Treason charges are significantly more serious under Russian law compared with "foreign agent" violations. In 2023, President Vladimir Putin signed legislation increasing the maximum sentence for people convicted of treason from 20 years in prison, to life.

Numerous RFE/RL reporters have been designated "foreign agents," and the organization itself has been labeled "undesirable" -- a legal category that authorities have used as a pretext for prosecuting others linked to the company.