Prison service officer convicted of espionage for Lithuania

On January 18, 2008 Vasily Khitryuk, of the Federal Prison Service (UFSIN), was convicted in Kaliningrad, the Baltic exclave where he was arrested in 2006. The court found that Khitryuk had been recruited by the intelligence services of Lithuania, which borders Kaliningrad, and had passed along information about Russian military units. Khitryuk was sentenced to 7,5 years in jail.

Vasily Khitryuk, 38, was detained in Kaliningrad on October 18, 2006. In time of arrest, he had “electronic media containing military data referred to the state secret,” said officers of the Federal Security Service.

He was accused of collecting the information from friends and colleagues in the Russian military and other security services. "The suspect used his former colleagues and friends who serve in the Russian Army and security-related agencies" to obtain confidential information, the FSB said in a statement immediately after the arrest in 2006.

According to Federal Security Service, Khitryuk has been spying for Lithuania for around five years and chased by the special services for a year. "Following orders from a Lithuanian intelligence officer, he [Khitryuk] offered them monetary rewards to supply him with copies of secret documents," the statement said.

The FSB said that during Khitryuk's arrest, officers seized computer storage devices with files containing top-secret information on the combat readiness of the Baltic Fleet and Russia's military contingent in Kaliningrad.

Commenting on Khitryuk's arrest, the Federal Penitentiary Service said the suspect, born in 1967, has been working for the agency for three years.

Agentura.Ru March 14, 2011