Russian spy convicted in Lithuania. Gru received detailed information about the defense of the Baltic Country

An 83 -year -old man, with double citizenship, Lithuanian and Russian, was sentenced to Lithuania to eight and a half years in prison in favor of the Russian military service of GRU, a court in the Lithuanian city of Siauliai, reports EFE and DPA, quoted by Agerpres.

The convicted man has constantly collected information of interest for Russian secret services, analyzed and transmitted this data through encrypted messages, receiving amounts of money, according to a court statement.

The Russian Military Intelligence Service was primarily interested in obtaining information on the defense of the Baltic country, its internal and external policy and other issues such as the functioning of its energy infrastructure during the war, the court says.

The same service also asked for information about NATO meetings in Lithuania, about military exercises, armament procurement and other data, including public sources, the court added, according to which the Lithuanian authorities have found spy equipment in the convicted one.

According to the public Lithuanian television station LRT, the convicted person is Eduardas Manovas, a member of the center-right party-Christian-Democrats Lithuanian (TS-LKD), a formation that was part of the ruling coalition between 2020 and 2024. He was arrested in January 2024, but this case came to this case.

According to the court, the convicted person acknowledged his activity of collecting information, but claimed that he sent contacts in Ukraine who acted as double agents against Russia and were infiltrated in Russian secret services.

However, sources from the Lithuanian security services quoted by the LRT post denied this possibility and estimated that the octogenarian, who lived in Russia a part of life, could be part of a sophisticated network by “illegals”, the name given to the spies operating without diplomatic coverage.