Russia detains 'Lithuanian spy'

A senior official in the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad has been arrested and accused of spying for neighbouring Lithuania.

The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) named the suspect as Vasily Khitryuk, a local prison official.

It said he was caught with electronic recording devices containing military secrets.

Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas denied his country had been engaged in espionage against Russia.

Mr Khitryuk had allegedly been caught with secret military information about both the Baltic fleet and the Russian army in the enclave of Kaliningrad, a spokesman for the FSB told the BBC.

The officer, who worked in the local prison service, allegedly had electronic devices containing details of the location and combat readiness of the navy and troops.

He is accused of collecting the information from friends and colleagues in the Russian military and other security services, the BBC's Richard Galpin reports from Moscow.

It is alleged he had been handing sensitive information to Lithuania for a long time.

Kaliningrad lies on the Baltic Sea coast and is entirely surrounded by Lithuania and Poland - both members of Nato and the EU. The port is strategically very important for Russia.

Relations were already tense between Russia and Lithuania, our correspondent says.

Earlier this month, the Lithuanian authorities expelled a senior Russian diplomat from Vilnius, just the latest in a series of expulsions in recent years over allegations of spying.