Robert Shonov worked for more than 25 years for the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok, Russia. Photo: Yuri Smityuk/Zuma PressThe U.S. condemned Moscow’s jailing of a Russian contractor for the American Embassy there, describing the arrest as a “blatant use of increasingly repressive laws against its own citizens.”Robert Shonov, 62 years old, was charged under a statute penalizing Russians who help a foreign state undermine Russia’s interests, Russian news agencies reported. The U.S. said the allegations were “wholly without merit.” He was arrested in March, and is now being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, whose cells are typically reserved for suspects in high-profile espionage cases, and faces eight years in prison, the agencies reported.

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