MOSCOW, October 27. /TASS/. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has said he possesses no information about Moscow’s contacts with Paris concerning a potential release of French national Laurent Vinatier (designated as a foreign agent in Russia), who was convicted for evading the duties of a foreign agent.

"I don’t know anything about this. I have no information on this matter," he told reporters.

Vinatier, an employee of the Swiss non-governmental non-profit organization Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, who was put on the register of foreign agents by the Russian justice ministry, was detained in Moscow in early June 2024. On October 14, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky district court found him guilty on charges of evading the duties under the Russian foreign agents law (part 3, article 330.1 of the Russian Criminal Code). Vinatier was sentenced to three years in a penitentiary colony. The case was considered in a special procedure.

According to the investigators, from August 23, 2021, to August 26, 2022, the man collected data about military and military-technical activities, and the mobilization campaign, of which he was obliged to notify a relevant Russian authority. The French national reportedly received information about the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine, and about operational combat forecasts. These materials could have been used against Russia, the investigators insist.