A court in Lithuania has found a Russian national guilty of spying and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for attempting to recruit local officials to plant listening devices at the offices of the Baltic nation's president.
The Vilnius district court said Friday that Nikolay Filipchenko was an officer with the Russian Federal Security Service and intended to spy on President Dalia Grybauskaite's office for Moscow.
Filipchenko pleaded not guilty during his trial and has 20 days to appeal the verdict. He was arrested in April 2015 at a Lithuanian-Russian border crossing while carrying a forged passport.
In recent years, Lithuania has deported several Russian nationals suspected of espionage. Lithuanians also have been convicted for spying for Belarus, which authorities say is sharing information with Russia.
