The first and the second secretaries of the US Embassy in Russia were declared personae non gratae and must leave the country within seven days, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"These persons [Sillin and Berstein] carried out illegal activities by maintaining contact with Russian citizen [Robert] Shonov, accused of 'confidential cooperation' with a foreign state. [Shonov] was given tasks with the goal of harming the national security of the Russian Federation for financial compensation. The US ambassador was informed that J. Sillin and D. Bernstein must leave Russian territory within 7 days in the status of persona non grata," the ministry said.
According to the ministry, the diplomats were communicating with the US informant Shonov.
In addition, the ministry highlighted that "the Russian side expects Washington to draw the right conclusions and refrain from confrontational steps."
On Thursday, according to the statement, US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy was summoned to the ministry to receive a demarche over actions of Jeffrey Sillin and David Bernstein, the first and the second secretaries of the embassy, which are “incompatible with the diplomatic status.”
On August 28, Russian FSB stopped Shonov's unlawful activities, adding that he was charged with committing a crime under article 275.1 of the criminal code of Russia "Cooperation on a confidential basis with a foreign state," according to the statement of the organization.
Since September 2022 until the arrest in March 2023, Shonov had been carrying out tasks of the employees of the political department of the US Embassy in Moscow, Sillin and Bernstein for a reward, the statement read.
He reportedly collected information on the course of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, mobilization processes in the country's regions and assessed the impact of the issues on the protest activity of the population before the 2024 Russian presidential elections.
In May, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US condemned the arrest of Shonov, adding that allegations against him were "wholly without merit."