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Russian Man Accused of High Treason for Passing Secrets to Western State

Moscow's Lefortovo Court

A Russian man suspected of divulging state secrets to the West is being held in Moscow where he stands accused of committing high treason, news reports said Friday.

The man, identified as Gennady Kravtsov by Moscow's Lefortovo Court, faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty of the charge, the Interfax news agency reported Friday, citing a source familiar with the situation.

The nature of the information Kravtsov that allegedly shared has not been disclosed, nor has the identity of the Western state to which he passed on the information.

Yulia Skotnikova, a press secretary for Lefortovo Court, told the RIA Novosti news agency that Kravtsov was arrested as far back as May 2014 and that his detention had been extended until March 2015.

News of the arrest comes just weeks after another Russian citizen was detained on suspicion of committing high treason.

Mother-of-seven Svetlana Davydova was detained last month at her home in western Russia after being accused of calling the Ukrainian Embassy to warn them of a possible deployment of Russian troops to their country.

Davydova was placed in pretrial detention in Moscow's high-security Lefortovo Prison, but was released earlier this week after her case garnered mass public attention.

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