Russia’s FSB Claims Jailed Russian-Born American Developed ‘Genetic Screening System’ for Pentagon

By The Moscow Times | Created at 2024-12-27 10:00:16 | Updated at 2024-12-28 02:56:38 17 hours ago

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed Friday that a Russian-born American who was jailed earlier this week for spying had been working with the Pentagon to develop a system for genetically screening the Russian population.

Gene Spector was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday, though the nature of the 2023 espionage charges against him was not made public. The trial was held behind closed doors.

“The American, acting in the interests of the Pentagon and a commercial organization affiliated with it, collected and transferred various biotechnological and biomedical information, including data constituting a state secret, to a foreign party,” the FSB was quoted as saying by Interfax.

“This information was intended for the subsequent creation of a high-speed genetic screening system of the Russian population by the United States,” the agency added.

The precise nature of the allegations remains unclear, though genetic screening is commonly used in medicine to detect gene mutations linked to inherited diseases, rare disorders and certain cancers. Spector is listed among the inventors of a potential cancer treatment, according to Russia’s intellectual property database, as cited by the RBC business news outlet.

Spector was first arrested in 2020 on charges of “mediating” a bribe to the aide of former Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in the form of vacations to Thailand and the Dominican Republic. He was sentenced to four years in prison in 2021, but that sentence was later reduced by six months following a retrial.

Spector was born in Leningrad in 1972 and was raised in the Soviet Union, according to the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, and his Russian name is Yevgeny Mironovich. He later became a U.S. citizen but returned to Russia to live in St. Petersburg with his wife and children.

He previously served as CEO of Medpolimerprom, a group of companies that makes plastic medical devices.

The United States previously said it did not believe Spector was wrongfully detained.

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