A prominent Russian scientist specialising in hypersonic technology has been sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of treason. His conviction is the latest in a series of arrests targeting researchers since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, in what experts are calling a politically motivated crackdown on scientists.
Russian scientists Alexander Shipliouk, Anatoly Maslov, and Valery Zvegintsev have more in common than just their roles as leading physicists in hypersonic missile development, one of their country’s technological strengths.
In recent months, all three men have been accused of high treason and detained by Russian authorities.
On September 3, a Moscow court sentenced Shipliouk, the former director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM) in Siberia, to 15 years in a high-security prison. The closed-door trial found him guilty of sharing “classified information” at a scientific conference in China in 2017. Shipliouk claims that the data he presented was already in the public domain.
His colleague at ITAM, 78-year-old Maslov, who specialises in hypersonic flight, used the same argument after being sentenced to 14 years in prison in May. He too was charged with treason for passing on sensitive information during trips overseas.
“It looks like Putin is trying to ensure control over every key bit of knowledge,” Mathers said.
Read more on FRANCE 24 English
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