MOSCOW -- A Moscow court on Monday charged former KGB general Oleg Kalugin with treason for giving away state secrets to the United States, in the first trial in absentia of a top spy chief since the fall of the Soviet Union more than a decade ago.

The court read the indictment against Kalugin for "divulging a state secret to a foreign nation," and recessed until Tuesday, his Lawyer Yevgeny Baru told AFP.

Baru said the court turned down his request for time to speak to the accused that has lived in the United States since 1995 the Interfax News Agency reported.

If found guilty, Kalugin faces a prison sentence of 12 to 20 years.

The veteran spy, who has said he will never return to Russia, is no stranger to controversy.

He caused a sensation in the early 1990s by publicly opposing the powerful KGB while still in its service and taking part in the Russian democratic movement, and of late has not spared criticism of President Vladimir Putin.

The formal opening of the trial last Thursday was adjourned after the court rejected a defense argument that the trial could only proceed only in the presence of the defendant or in his absence with his assent, as stipulated by the new legal code due to come into force on July 1.

The court ruled that Kalugin should be tried in line with the current legal code, which dates from the Soviet era and permits trials in absentia.

It accepted the prosecution's argument that Kalugin had been informed in time of the date and venue of the trial and had been given sufficient time to get in touch with his lawyers.

Kalugin says he is not guilty and has denounced the prosecution as politically motivated.

Russian prosecutors say Kalugin handed over classified documents to Washington when he provided testimony in the U.S. trial against the former U.S. Army colonel and convicted Russian spy, George Trofimoff.

Trofimoff received a life prison sentence last September.

Baru noted that his defense capability would be limited by the absence of the accused, and said the trial in absentia ran counter to international norms.

The trial -- following legal proceedings launched two years ago -- was originally set to begin on June 4, but was delayed to enable Baru to study Kalugin's file.

The Russian secret service failed last march to persuade Kalugin to return to Moscow to face the charges, and there is no extradition agreement between Russia and the United States.

Born in 1934, Kalugin joined the KGB in 1958 and spent more than three decades in its foreign intelligence department, including many years based in the United States.

Sacked in 1990 after criticizing the service, he flirted briefly with a political career before emigrating.

In the United States, Kalugin wrote books denouncing the Soviet secret service and has recently described Russia under Putin, a former KGB colonel, as corrupt and crime-ridden.

Russian experts have said that material published in Kalugin's books provided ample means for U.S. intelligence chiefs to unmask Russian operatives.