Russia: French citizen pleads guilty to illegally collecting military details

Russian investigators said on Wednesday that French researcher Laurent Vinatier, who was detained last month and accused of failing to register as a foreign agent while illegally collecting sensitive military information, had pleaded guilty during questioning.
Vinatier, an expert with long experience of working in Russia, was shown last month being arrested in a central Moscow restaurant by masked officers from the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
He is accused of failing to register as a foreign agent and intentionally collecting military information which could be used by foreign intelligence services to damage the security of Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron denied that Vinatier, an employee of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Swiss-based conflict mediation group, worked for the French state. Macron described his arrest as part of a disinformation campaign by Moscow.