The Frenchman, arrested in Russia on Thursday June 6 and suspected of espionage, did not work for France. In any case, this is what is assured at the highest level of the State, while Laurent Vinatier was arrested on suspicion of collecting information on Russian military activities. This 48-year-old man, an intellectual, is also an expert on Russia, where he visited regularly.
According to the Russian investigative committee in charge of the case, it was during his visits that he collected sensitive information that could, again according to the Moscow authorities, to endanger the security of the country. He is also accused of not having declared himself as a foreign agent, as required by Russian law.
Laurent Vinatier is both doctor of philosophy, but also a fine connoisseur of the post-Soviet sphere. He has worked in particular on the conflict in Chechnya, but also, for around ten years, on that between Russia and Ukraine. All this for the sake of Swiss NGO based in Geneva, Humanitarian Dialogue.
The Frenchman is carrying out a sort of informal diplomacy there outside official channels to try to resolve conflicts. The Russian investigative committee announced this Friday morning, June 7, that it would ask the court to take security measures. It could be the preventive detention of the Frenchmanas is the case in this type of business in Russia.
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