Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Two Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, agents and a Kaspersky Lab manager have been charged with high treason for allegedly delivering state secrets to the United States.
Ivan Pavlov, the lawyer for one of the defendants, said there are more than three suspects in the case. He said the charges did not specifically mention U.S. intelligence agencies such as the CIA, rather the men were charged Wednesday with aiding the United States in general.
"All the suspects have been charged with high treason. This is the sole count in the case. There are no other accusations," Pavlov told Russia's state-run Tass news agency. "No CIA is mentioned in the case. It is only the country that is mentioned. Yes, the talk is about America, not about the CIA."
The FSB's Investigative Department is conducting the internal investigation against the men. The suspects were identified as Sergei Mikhailov, head of a division in the FSB's Information Security Center, his assistant Dmitry Dokuchayev, and Kaspersky Internet Security Laboratory manager Ruslan Stoyanov. Pavlov said a fourth unidentified man was also arrested.
Kaspersky Lab is a private Russian independent security firm. Kaspersky Lab said the employee who was charged with treason was under investigation for activities prior to his employment at the firm.
Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, on Thursday rejected accusations the detained FSB officers were involved in hacking attacks against the United States during the presidential elections.
"In any case, no matters of this sort can have any relation to such absurd insinuations or, as we have already said, we categorically deny any assertions about the possible complicity of the Russian side in any hacker attacks," Peskov said.
Treason is punishable by up to 20 years in prison under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code.
