Russia says detains suspected Lithuanian spy - Interfax

May 20, 2015 12:13 PM

MOSCOW, May 20 (Reuters) - Russian law enforcement officials have detained a suspected spy from Lithuania, Interfax news agency reported on Wednesday, highlighting growing tension between Moscow and the former Soviet state, now a member of the NATO defence alliance.

Lithuania, one of three Baltic states with a significant Russian minority population, has expressed concerns over increased Russian military activity in the region following Moscow's annexation of Crimea last year.

The unidentified Lithuanian national was caught red-handed in Moscow on Tuesday on receiving documents containing classified information from a Russian national, Interfax quoted the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying.

The FSB refused to confirm or deny the report when contacted by Reuters.

Interfax said the Lithuanian citizen admitted to being an officer of the Lithuanian military intelligence and was now being held in a Moscow detention centre.

"We have no official comment at the moment", spokesman for the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, Kestutis Vaskelevicius, said in Vilnius.

Lithuania said earlier in May it had detained a suspected Russian spy who had been trying to infiltrate the country's leadership, law enforcement and security institutions.

Ties between Moscow and Vilnius - now a member of NATO and the European Union - are badly strained over Ukraine where the West accuses the Kremlin of driving a rebellion in the Russian-speaking east after having annexed Crimea from Kiev in March, 2014. Russia denies accusations of dircet military involvement.

Lithuania recently staged military drills to fend off an attack modelled around the Russian capture of Crimea.

Along with the other two Baltic states, Latvia and Estonia, Vilnius also wants to seek permanent presence of NATO troops on its soil to counter what it sees as an increasing threat from Russia, once dubbed by Lithuania's President Dalia Grybauskaite "a terrorist state".

The announcement comes a day before Lithuania's neighbour Latvia hosts the Eastern Partnership summit, an EU programme aimed at bringing former Soviet republics closer to the West that faces vehement criticism from Moscow. (Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska, additional reporting by Andrius Sytas)