Russia has charged a jailed United States citizen with espionage, state news agencies report, upping the pressure on US President Joe Biden’s administration which has been trying to find a way to bring several detained citizens back home from Russia.

Russia’s RIA and TASS news agencies said Moscow’s Lefortovo court had remanded Gene Spector in pre-trial custody on suspicion of espionage, which is punishable with a jail term of 10 to 20 years.

“The court granted the request of the investigation to detain a US citizen Spector on charges under Article 276 (espionage) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation,” TASS quoted an unidentified source at the court as saying.

The news agencies did not report any details of the new charges but said the court session was held behind closed doors as the case materials were classified.

Spector is already serving a 3.5-year sentence after pleading guilty to his role in bribing an assistant of ex-Russian deputy prime minister Arkady Dvorkovich, according to the news agencies.

Spector was born in what is now St Petersburg and then moved to the US.

Before his 2021 arrest, he served as chairman of the board of Medpolymerprom Group, a company that specialises in cancer-curing drugs, TASS said.

No response from Washington

Speaking on CNN, White House spokesman John Kirby said the administration was still collecting information about the case and had no comment yet.

The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The US has been talking to Russia about ways to bring back several US citizens detained in Moscow, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan.

The Kremlin has confirmed it has held some discussions with Washington but has repeatedly said swaps can only be considered after trials and has cautioned that US attempts to speak publicly about the talks will undermine efforts.

Russia’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said on Wednesday Moscow and Washington operate an effective channel to swap prisoners.

The Journal‘s Gershkovich, a US citizen, was arrested in March on espionage charges that he, the Journal and Washington deny. Russia says he was caught red-handed.

Whelan, a former US Marine, is serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony after being convicted of espionage charges that Washington also says are a sham.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone to Whelan this month.

Last December, US basketball star Brittney Griner was released in a prisoner swap, having been sentenced to nine years in a penal colony for possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil – which is banned in Russia – after a judicial process labelled a sham by Washington.

US: Get out of Russia

Since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, the US has repeatedly told its citizens to leave Russia due to the risk of arbitrary arrest or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies.

In June, Michael Travis Leake, a US musician and former paratrooper, was shown in court, locked in a metal cage.

He was arrested on drug dealing charges.

Reuters was unable to reach him for comment.

Brazil this year refused a US request to extradite Sergey Cherkasov, who Western intelligence agencies say is a Russian spy who tried to use a false identity to infiltrate the International Criminal Court.

-AAP