Lithuania jails army paramedic for spying for Belarus

(VILNIUS) - Lithuania on Friday sentenced a former military paramedic to three years in jail for spying for neighbouring Belarus, the second such case in just four months amid tension between the West and Russia.

The court in the NATO and EU Baltic state said Lithuanian citizen Andrej Osurkov had provided Minsk with classified information about military objects and troops after he joined the Lithuanian military in 2007.

The Vilnius regional court said the man had confessed. He was detained in January 2014.

In November, a Lithuanian court handed down a three-year prison term to a civil aviation official found guilty of providing Belarus with photocopies of Vilnius airport documents.

Despite being one of Russia's closest allies, Belarus has recently warmed up to the West.

Last month, the EU agreed to lift nearly all sanctions on Belarus, including those against strongman President Alexander Lukashenko.

Russia's relations with the West have hit their lowest point since the Cold War over the conflict in Ukraine, leading to a spike in spying claims.

Last month, fellow Baltic EU and NATO member Estonia jailed ethnic Russian cigarette smugglers who were convicted of spying for the Russian special services.

That incident followed a Cold War-style spy swap between Russia and Estonia in September on a bridge spanning their shared border.

Russia's role in the Ukraine crisis has prompted eastern European NATO members once ruled from Moscow to demand that the transatlantic alliance permanently station troops on its eastern flank.

NATO leaders are expected to formally endorse the deployment of significant troop rotations to the area at a July summit in Poland, a move that has angered Moscow.