St Petersburg - A Russian court acquitted the former naval captain, Mr Alexander Nikitin, yesterday of charges that he had revealed state secrets while working for a Norwegian environmental group.
Russia's FSB security agency, the main successor of the Soviet-era KGB, had accused Mr Nikitin of handing over information on radioactive pollution in the Arctic Sea to environmental campaigners Bellona.
Judge Sergei Golets said the accusations were a violation of the Russian constitution as they were based on secret Defence Ministry orders which Mr Nikitin could not have known about.