Russian jailed for 13 years for passing secrets to CIA

A military court yesterday convicted a Russian officer of passing missile secrets to the CIA and sentenced him to 13 years in prison.

Lieutenant colonel Vlad-imir Nesterets was also stripped of his military rank after pleading guilty to passing classified information about Russian missile tests to the CIA for money, according to the Federal Security Service, the main agency that replaced the KGB.

The agency said Nesterets committed treason as he worked as a senior engineer at the Plesetsk launch pad in north-west Russia, a facility the military uses to launch satellites and test missiles.