Russia jails scientist accused of sharing hypersonic missile data with Germany

An elderly Russian physicist named Anatoly Maslov was found guilty of treason on Tuesday and sentenced to 14 years in a correctional colony. This is just one of several trials against scientists who have worked on the science underlying Russia’s development of hypersonic weapons.

After a press-only trial, a St. Petersburg court found 77-year-old Maslov guilty. He had argued that he was innocent.

Maslov is one of three hypersonics experts from the same Siberian institute who have been detained on treasonous allegations since 2022. Valery Zvegintsev and Alexander Shiplyuk, the other two, are awaiting trial.

They had done theoretical work related to the development of hypersonic missiles, which are state-of-the-art weapons that can transport payloads at up to ten times the speed of sound to breach air defense systems. They were among several other scientists accused in similar cases.

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Russia is a global leader in this area of armaments, as President Vladimir Putin has stated on numerous occasions.

The three scientists were accused of leaking information deemed to be state secrets while taking part in an international conference or research project, according to attorney Yevgeny Smirnov of Pervy Otdel (First Department), a group that specializes in defending individuals in treason and espionage cases.

Colleagues of Maslov, Shiplyuk, and Zvegintsev said the men were innocent and that the scientific papers they had published or presented at international conferences had been checked to make sure they did not include classified material in a rare open letter that was published last year.

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They said that the prosecutions were impeding scientists’ ability to carry out their duties and were having a chilling impact on Russian academia.

At the time, the Kremlin responded by stating that the individuals were the targets of “very serious accusations” and that the security agencies should handle their cases.

Maslov’s attorney was quoted by Russian media as claiming that the physicist had committed his entire life to science and had never considered abandoning his nation in a farewell speech to the court.

Maslov had a heart attack at the beginning of the year, according to the defence, and a lengthy prison term would be the equivalent of a death sentence.

Another scientist working in the same subject, Alexander Kuranov, was sentenced to seven years in prison last month. According to the Russian daily Kommersant, he received a lighter sentence in exchange for testifying against Maslov. This was not confirmed by Reuters.

“It is obvious that the persecution of scientists is an exclusively political step by the Russian authorities, by which they seek to show that intelligence services around the world are trying to steal the secrets of Russian weapons,” said Smirnov of Pervy Otdel.

He said the detained scientists were not working directly on weapons, but were studying physical processes associated with high speeds.

“The essence of the charge is approximately the same for everyone,” Smirnov said, adding that the so-called secrets were actually “openly published and available to anyone”.