Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed that 47-year-old Igor Kopyl was a former member of the Ukrainian navy who had been recruited by Kyiv in 2022, following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor, reported the independent Russian newspaper The Moscow Times.
The FSB alleged that he supplied critical information to the Ukrainian authorities about Russian ships, air defense systems, and military equipment.
Additionally, the agency accused Kopyl of receiving a parcel containing explosives, which it alleges was intended to be used for a terrorist act.
Russian media reported that Kopyl is a resident of Sevastopol, the Crimean port where Russia's Black Sea Fleet is based.
Russia illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.
Political repression
Following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has launched a massive crackdown on civil society, regularly imprisoning individuals it accuses of working for Kyiv or condemning its military actions in Ukraine.
Recently, it sentenced a former editor of the youth news outlet DOXA to seven years in prison for two posts she made in 2022 in support of Russian political prisoners.
According to the Russian human rights group Memorial, there are currently 776 political prisoners in the country.
