Photo: Alexandra Astakhova / Mediazona

Laurent Vinatier, a 49-year-old French political scientist already serving a custodial sentence in Russia, has been charged with espionage, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Wednesday.

Mediazona uncovered a file on the website of the Moscow courts setting out new charges of espionage, though no further details were given. The case appeared on file on Wednesday, with the first court hearing due for 25 August.

Vinatier, a researcher on Russia and the former Soviet Union, was first detained in Moscow on 7 June 2024, and pleaded guilty to the charges against him on the same day. In an effort to receive a lighter sentence, his case was tried under a special protocol that did not require evidence to be presented in court, according to Mediazona.

Prosecutors said that Vinatier had met with three Russians in April 2021 and August 2022 without first registering as a “foreign agent” to gather information “about the mobilisation and combat training of troops”, as well as the political situation in Russia, which “could be used against state security”. Vinatier was found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison in October.

A fluent Russian speaker with a doctorate in military conflicts in the former Soviet Union from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, Vinatier had worked at the Switzerland-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue as an adviser on its Eurasia/Russia Programme since 2014.

Vinatier told the court that he had been working in Russia for years. “I fell in love with Russia. My wife is Russian, my friends are Russian. I lived a Russian life, that’s who I am,” according to AFP.