Frenchman Laurent Vinatier will be tried in Moscow from September 3.
Arrested in June, he is accused of failing to register as a foreign agent.
He faces five years in prison for the offence, but the espionage charges appear to have been dropped.
Frenchman Laurent Vinatier is due to appear before the Zamoskvoretsky court in Moscow on Tuesday, September 3. The researcher is being tried for failing to register with Russian authorities as a “foreign agent.” He faces a five-year prison sentence.
Laurent Vinatier pleaded guilty last June, explaining that he was unaware that Russian law required him to make such a declaration, but the trial could last a few days.
The 48-year-old Frenchman is a specialist in the post-Soviet space. He worked in Russia for the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss NGO that mediates conflicts outside official diplomatic channels.
His arrest in early June came amid rising tensions between Paris and Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine. The Russian Investigative Committee had also suspected him of collecting information on Russian military activities, raising fears of more serious charges.
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Arrest in Russia of Frenchman Laurent Vinatier: “foreign agent”, a special status under Russian law
Moscow regularly uses this type of indictment of foreign nationals, which often leads to prisoner exchanges with their home countries. On August 1, the largest prisoner exchange since the end of the Cold War took place, including American journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan, who were released by Moscow. Eight Russians imprisoned in the United States, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Norway, as well as the two children of a spy couple, were returned to Moscow.
Paris then called for the immediate release of the other people still “arbitrarily detained in Russia”notably Laurent Vinatier.
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