YEKATERINBURG, March 24. /TASS/. Ukrainian citizen Sergey Skirta detained in Yekaterinburg on suspicion of illegally collecting information about Russian enterprises possessed documents attesting to his links with the Ukrrosmetall company, according to the video footage released on Tuesday by the press service of the Sverdlovsk regional department of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Skirta explained that he was an employee of the Ukrainian-Belarusian joint venture Ukrtekhnosintez (a unit of Ukrrosmetall). The Ukrrosmetall press service has declined to comment on the issue, saying that they were "trying to find out whether he is our staff member or not."
An FSB source told TASS that Skirta was allegedly trying to acquire information on the activities of the Urals Turbine Plant, which is part of ROTEK Holding Company. FSB officers have found on him documents classified as the plant’s commercial secret.
Last year, Russia’s Federal Security Service obtained information that Skirta was collecting information about the design and production documentation of enterprises located in the Urals region. The Ukrainian national was detained red-handed last month as he received a package of materials for the production of high-tech machinery. The transfer of these documents to a third party could have inflicted hundreds of millions of roubles in damage, the enterprise said.
"He has already pleaded guilty to illegal activities, with a court sanctioning his pre-trial two-month arrest," the FSB regional department said.
Ukraine’s Consulate General in Yekaterinburg renders Skirta all necessary assistance and keeps the situation under control, Consul-General Vladimir Bondarenko told TASS.