16 Russian hypersonic missile developers accused of passing classified data to China
The maximum punishment under this article in Russia is life imprisonment.
Alexander Shiplyuk, director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITPM) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is charged with treason for passing classified information to China.
Source. Reuters reports this with reference to two people familiar with the case.
Shiplyuk was arrested in August last year. Similarly, another scientist from ITPM, Chief Researcher Anatolii Maslov, was arrested in June 2022 because of the "Chinese trace". Both were charged under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
According to Reuters, Shiplyuk is suspected of passing classified materials at a scientific conference in China in 2017. He insists on his innocence, claiming that the information in question is not secret and was available on the Internet, the agency's sources say.
Shiplyuk and Maslov had been working on hypersonic missiles for more than 10 years, which war criminal Vladimir Putin was so proud of. In particular, he claimed that the Kinzhal missile was "guaranteed to overcome" not only existing but also future air and missile defense systems – claims that have been refuted in recent weeks by the Ukrainian military, which has shot down several Kinzhals using the US Patriot system.
Shyplyuk and Maslov presented their experimental design of hypersonic missiles in 2012 at a scientific seminar in France, and four years later published a paper on aerodynamic research at hypersonic speeds.
The third ITPM scientist arrested in April on suspicion of treason was Valery Zvegintsev, who founded the Institute's Laboratory of High-Speed Aerogas Dynamics.
In total, 16 people in the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been prosecuted, including its former head, RAS academician Alexander Aseyev.
Dmitriy Kolker, head of the Laboratory of Quantum Optical Technologies at Novosibirsk State University, died last year in a pre-trial detention center in Moscow two days after his arrest by the FSB on charges of treason. Kolker was suffering from cancer. His lawyer told Reuters that the scientist was also accused of passing secrets to China.
Background. As a reminder, the Ukrainian Air Force shot down the X-47 Kinzhal hypersonic missile for the first time.
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