Russia says jailed American conducted “genetic screening” for Pentagon

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has said a detained Russian-born U.S. citizen serving a prison sentence in Russia for bribery has received an additional 15-year sentence for espionage.

Eugene Spector is accused of gathering genetic data from Russian citizens under the pretense of scientific research, the Russian news outlet Meduza reported.

Newsweek contacted the Russian government for comment via email on Friday.

Why It Matters

The FSB alleges that Spector gathered information on behalf of the Pentagon to develop a “genetic screening system” targeting Russians.

In recent years, Russian authorities have tightened regulations on the export of biological data, citing fears of foreign exploitation amid growing concerns over biosecurity.

What To Know

Spector, who was born and raised in Leningrad, later moved to the United States and received citizenship there, according to Meduza.

As Newsweek previously reported, Spector is married to a Russian woman and had lived in St. Petersburg for the five years prior to his arrest. He is also a former chairman of the board of directors of the Medpolymerprom Group.

In February 2020, Spector was arrested for his alleged role as a mediator in a bribery case involving Anastasia Alekseeva, who served as an assistant to former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich.

In September 2022, he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fined 14 million rubles for his involvement.

He was then arrested in August 2023 on espionage charges. On December 24, the Moscow City Court found Spector guilty of espionage.

According to the court’s decision, Spector must spend 15 years in a maximum security penal colony.

Details of Spector’s case had not been previously disclosed because the trial was conducted in private, as the case contains classified materials, according to reports.

Specific details of the espionage case are still unknown. The court announced only the introductory and operative parts of the verdict, Meduza reported.

The outlet reported in a series of articles that “Russian authorities are concerned about the topic of genetics, and may have become interested in it because of horror stories and scares.”

According to Meduza’s sources, Russian President Vladimir Putin “is afraid of genetic weapons that could allegedly be used in Russia.”

The FSB did not comment on Spector’s alleged intentions or the specific nature of the purported “screening system.”

What People Are Saying

The Russian Federal Security Service said, as reported by Meduza: “The American, acting in the interests of the Pentagon and a commercial organization affiliated with it, collected and transferred to a foreign party various information on biotechnological and biomedical topics, including information constituting a state secret, for the subsequent creation by the United States of a high-speed genetic screening system for the Russian population.”

What Happens Next

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. State Department said it was aware of reports of the sentencing of a U.S. citizen in Russia and was monitoring the situation.