Russian police officer suspected of high sedition held

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Monday it had detained a senior police officer suspected of committing high treason, reported Xinhua.

"The Russian Federal Security Service has detained the head of a district department of the Kursk regional division of the Russian Interior Ministry, Lt. Col. Dmitry Borzenkov, born in 1981," it said in a statement.

According to counterintelligence data, Borzenkov was involved in confidential cooperation with the Security Service of Ukraine and collected and transmitted information constituting state secrets on its instructions, the statement said.

An investigation into the case is underway, it added.

The Interior Ministry's Kursk office said in a separate statement that it had started an internal investigation into Borzenkov's case and that he would "be made answerable for his crime in accordance with the law."

Under the Russian legislation, high treason can be punished by a prison term of 12 to 20 years with a fine of up to 500,000 rubles.