MOSCOW, April 16 - RAPSI. US Army soldier William Colton Millay has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for attempting to sell military secrets to a Russian intelligence officer, the AP reported Tuesday.

The Alaska-based military policeman will be dismissed from military service and stripped of all rights and privileges for attempting to disclose classified information. Millay, 24, was serving at the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.

Millay, who faced a life imprisonment, pleaded guilty to the espionage charges in March. His sentence was handed down on Monday.

US military prosecutors believe Millay had racist views and was also motivated by his disappointment with the government and the US Army.

Some media reports linked Millay's case with a recent leak of confidential information to the notorious Wikileaks website, but the FBI denied these allegations.

While 16 years in federal prison is hardly an enviable fate, things could be much worse for Colton.

The US Code stipulates that anyone who, "with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation," delivers information relating to national defense to any foreign government "shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for any term of years or for life."

The death penalty is not always an option in such cases, although nuclear information leaves the option on the table.

The code stipulates that in such cases, the death penalty is available if the offense directly concerned "nuclear weaponry, military spacecraft or satellites, early warning systems, or other means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack; war plans; communications intelligence or cryptographic information; or any other major weapons system or major element of defense strategy."