Russian authorities filed espionage charges Friday against American engineer Richard L. Bliss, who was detained 10 days ago after making land surveys in southern Russia.
Bliss has confessed to the actions that are the basis of the charges, but has maintained he is not guilty of espionage, said Alexander Turinsky, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, a successor to the Soviet KGB.Bliss, 29, is a field technician employed by a San Diego-based telecommunications firm, Qualcomm, Inc., which is under contract to install a cellular phone system in the Rostov region.
He has been accused of violating a statute of the Russian criminal code that outlaws "gathering information connected to state secrets with the goal of providing it to a foreign state, foreign organizations or their representatives," Turinsky said.
Under Russian law, Bliss had to be charged within 10 days of his detention or be released from custody.
U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Hoagland had no immediate response to the charges filed against Bliss. Embassy officials have previously insisted that Bliss has no connection to the U.S. government and is not a spy.
Qualcomm said in a statement issued after Bliss was arrested that it believed all of his activities were in accordance with Russian laws.