Suspected Russian spy arrested in Lithuania
Lithuania's Prosecutor General's Office said on Monday that a Russian citizen has been detained in Lithuania on the suspicion of spying.
According to the press release, the arrested person was an employee of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and has been detained for three months, Lithuania's Delfi reported.
“The detained individual carried out an intelligence operation against Lithuania, which was aimed at penetrating Lithuania's governing institutions, Lithuanian law-enforcement and intelligence services,” the Prosecutor General's Office said.
According to information provided by the Lithuania's State Security Department, the detention prevented “access to the information known to top leaders of Lithuania, with the aim of manipulating and influencing decision-making processes in Lithuania at the top level”.
It's a fourth spying case disclosed by Lithuanian law enforcement and intelligence services over the last few years.
Estonian authorities have previously caught three Russian spies - former Defense Ministry official Herman Simm was arrested and later sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in 2009, former security official Aleksei Dressen was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2012, and Vladimir Veitman, a former specialist for Estonian counterintelligence, was found guilty of spying for Russian secret services and sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2013.
Editor: S. Tambur