Russian Officer Convicted Of Spying

A Russian military officer was convicted of espionage on Monday, and a Russian news agency reported that he was charged after being detained while trying to pass classified information to American intelligence agents.

In a closed trial, the Moscow district military court sentenced Col. Alexander Sypachev to eight years in a maximum-security labor camp and stripped him of his rank, the Russian military prosecutor's office said in a statement.

According to the Interfax news agency, Moscow district military court official Yevgeny Komissarov said that Sypachev, a Russian intelligence agent, offered his services to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in February 2002.

Sypachev met in March with representatives of a U.S. intelligence service, who told him what information they would like to obtain, and he wrote a two-page report about Russian intelligence personnel and other classified information, Interfax quoted Kommissarov as saying.

The court verdict says Sypachev was detained by the Federal Security Service arrested April 4 after placing an envelop containing the report in a secret location, Interfax reported.

Kommissarov said Sypachev pleased guilty and cooperated with investigators, and that his guilt was established by his own testimony and other evidence.

The military prosecutor's office declined to comment on the details of the case. U.S. Embassy officials could not immediately be reached for comment.