In Russia~, the arrests for high treason of three Russian professors working on hypersonic missile technology on the same faculty in Siberia have elicited a rare public outcry from Russia’s scientific community as treason prosecutions increase in wartime. Russian experts condemned the academics’ detention in an open letter released on Monday, stating the occurrences had spread terror and warning that weapons development could “collapse” as a result.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, said Wednesday that the individuals were facing “very serious accusations,” but he declined to elaborate. Peskov said that he had seen the open letter and that Russian security services were still investigating the matter. The uproar over the scientists’ case comes after Ukraine claimed to have destroyed six Russian Kinzhal hypersonic missiles during a salvo of missile attacks on Kyiv on Tuesday. The weapons are a sort of air-launched ballistic missile that Russia has previously described as unstoppable and capable of defeating all forms of air defense.
According to a British defense ministry intelligence assessment issued on Wednesday, Ukraine’s air defences disclosed a “apparent vulnerability” that “is likely a surprise and an embarrassment for Russia.” Valery Zvegintsev, Anatoly Maslov, and Alexander Shiplyuk are all workers of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian branch in Novosibirsk’s Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. The cases have been cloaked in secrecy, with few details about their nature available. People convicted guilty of disclosing state secrets in Russia risk up to 20 years in prison.
In an open letter published on Monday, the scientists’ colleagues sought a “urgent solution,” alleging the academics’ innocence and claimed their detention would cause great harm to Russian science. “They are all known for their brilliant scientific results…” They have dedicated their life to the advancement of Russian science. “Our colleagues have always acted in the best interests of the country,” the letter stated. “We know each of them as a patriot and a decent person who is not capable of doing what the investigating authorities suspect them of.”
Maslov was reportedly arrested in July on suspicion of passing sensitive hypersonic research data to China. A month later, his coworker Shiplyuk was detained.
The open letter was the first to report on Zvegintsev’s arrest. Tass, Russia’s national news agency, has since reported that Zvegintsev was arrested last month and is now under house arrest. According to Tass, Zvegintsev, who has produced over 300 scientific papers, was arrested in connection with an essay he wrote on gas dynamics in an Iranian journal.
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