Russia jails spy

MOSCOW, Russia -- A former Russian secret services officer has been jailed for seven years after being convicted of spying for Britain and Estonia.

Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency said Valery Ojamae had been recruited in Estonia by a senior figure at the British Embassy aided, said the RIA news agency, by Estonia's special police force.

On Monday Moscow's City Court found him guilty of high treason and handed him a seven year prison sentence.

The court also ordered his property confiscated, reported the Russian Interfax news agency.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Security Service confirmed that Ojamae had been charged with spying.

He had previously worked for Russia's domestic intelligence services but after leaving his job there he started passing on information about Russia's super-secret Federal Agency of Government Communications and Information (FAPSI), police said.

Russia says it has been catching more spies in recently than at any time since the end of the Cold War.

Ojamae was charged in March 2000, followed by a spy row in August in which Moscow and Tallinn, Estonia each expelled two of the other country's diplomats.

The case of another alleged Russian spy for Britain, Platon Obukhov, has been making its way through Russian courts for five years.

Obukhov, son of a senior Soviet diplomat, was convicted as a spy but the verdict was overturned and a new trial ordered.

Other prominent spying cases over the last year have included the U.S. arrest of FBI veteran Robert Hanssen, last month's tit-for-tat expulsions of Russian and U.S. diplomats, and Moscow's conviction of U.S. businessman Edmond Pope, who was later pardoned by President Vladimir Putin.

The case against Robert Hanssen
Indepth 2001
Spy climate: Chilly, but not cold
March 22, 2001
Spying game: Recent cases
March 22, 2001
Recalled Russian diplomat said to be Hanssen handler
March 19, 2001
Veteran FBI agent accused of spying for Russia
February 20, 2001

Russian Government
British Government
Estonian Government

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