The Russian citizen is 72 years old and lived in Latvia after leaving the armed forces and the collapse of the USSR.
A court in Latvia sent a former Soviet officer to prison for eight years on Wednesday for spying for Russia. It was reported by the Latvian agency LETA, writes TASR according to the agency DPA.
The Russian citizen is 72 years old and lived in Latvia after leaving the armed forces and the collapse of the USSR. The court found him guilty of collecting publicly available information about political processes, critical infrastructure and military facilities near the Riga airport.
According to the judgment of the District Court in Riga, he handed them over to a representative of the Russian secret service during a visit to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The prosecution was unable to determine the exact amount of information given, given that the espionage lasted over a long period of time and that the convict obtained it during a personal trip to Russia.
The man was arrested in December 2023. During a search of his garage, 136 cartridges, a 975-gram charge of the explosive hexogen and four TNT charges weighing almost 760 grams were found.
Latvia was part of the Soviet Union from 1940 until its collapse in 1991. During this period, many Latvians were deported to Siberia and many Russian-speaking residents immigrated to its territory. A large Russian minority still lives there.
