Russia arrests hypersonic weapons developer on suspicion of transferring hypersonic technology to China
Russian security forces have arrested three Russian scientists involved in the development of hypersonic weapons. They are all accused of treason.
Here's What We Know
This week, employees of the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences published an open letter. In it they call to "protect Russian aerodynamic science" and "save what has been created through decades of dedicated work by Soviet and Russian scientists, engineers and workers from imminent collapse".
It has become known that Russian security forces have arrested three aerodynamics scientists. They turned out to be Anatoly Maslov, Alexander Shiplyuk and Valery Zvegintsev (in the same order on the photo above). All of them are charged with Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, "High Treason", which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Aleksandr Shiplyuk was taken to the detention centre at the end of the summer of 2022, following Anatoliy Maslov. The latter is suspected of transferring Russian hypersonic technology to China. Both scientists had been working on hypersonic missiles for more than a decade. As for Valery Zvegintsev, he has been under house arrest since early April 2023.