The French president affirmed that Moscow must release Laurent Vinatier, imprisoned on Friday for alleged handling of sensitive military data.
A Moscow court on Friday ordered the admission to prison by Vinatier awaiting investigation and trial. The French citizen was detained in the Russian capital on Thursday, at a time when tensions between Moscow and Paris have intensified following the president’s statements. Macron on possibility of deploying troops from your country in Ukraine.
Authorities accused Vinatier of failing to register as “foreign agent” while collecting information about Russia’s “military and military-technical activities”, which could be used to the detriment of the country’s security.
They did not elaborate on the allegations beyond alleging that Vinatier repeatedly traveled to Russia to gather this information. Under Russian law, this is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
Vinatier appeared in court on Friday. Russia’s state news agency Tass quoted his lawyer as saying in the courtroom that Vinatier admitted his guilt and maintained that he simply I didn’t know the requirement. The report also states that Vinatier apologized in court. The judge ordered his admission to preventive detention until August 5.
Vinatier is an advisor to the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a non-governmental organization based in Geneva. On Friday, the NGO stated that it was doing “everything possible to help our colleague Laurent”, for example by helping him get legal representation and contact Russian authorities.
“As the case progresses, we continue looking for information about the circumstances that led to his arrest and the charges against him,” the organization added.
The charges against Vinatier stem from a recently passed law requiring anyone to collect information about military affairs to register with the authorities as foreign agent.
Human rights groups have criticized this law and others passed recently as part of a offensive on multiple fronts of the Kremlin against los independent media and the activists politicians, aimed at suppressing criticism of their actions in Ukraine.
Las arrests for espionage and collection of confidential data are increasingly common in Russia since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine at the beginning of its large scale invasion in February 2022.
Among the most recent arrests, it is worth highlighting that of ‘Wall Street Journal’ journalist Evan Gershkovichaccused of espionage, and that of the Russian-American journalist Also Kurmashevaarrested in October 2023 on the same charges as Vinatier.
