Three employees of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Zvegintsev, Anatoly Maslov and Alexander Shiplyuk, arrested in the case of treason, took part in the projects of the seventh framework program of the European Union TransHyBerian, coordinator of which was the Belgian Fon-Karman Institute of Hydrodynamics, writes the T-invariant project.
According to the project, all three were co-authors of papers for many years at different times, which can be found in open databases of scientific articles. Formally, they were charged under the article on treason for disclosing classified information in speeches at conferences and publications in China and Iran.
The speeches and publications in question, as noted, were made at a time when any external contacts of physicists were under strict control and passed through the approval of two institute expert commissions.
T-invariant indicates that for the first time a version about the connection of scientists studying hypersonic technologies with the use of these technologies in the Avangard and Kinzhal combat missile systems was voiced in the material of Kommersant in June 2018 in connection with the accusation of “treason” of the scientist from the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMash) Viktor Kudryavtsev, who at the time of his arrest had not had access to secret work for more than ten years. It was about his participation in the TransHyBerian project, where he acted as a coordinator from his institute.
He was detained in the summer of 2018 and accused of treason; in April 2021, the scientist died at the age of 77. He was accused of passing secret data on technologies used in the development of hypersonic aircraft “which could be used to create new types of weapons” to foreign colleagues at the Brussels-based Von Karman Institute of Hydrodynamics. The scientist pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him.
Another participant in the TransHyBerian program was the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N. Zhukovsky (TsAGI), where scientists Anatoly Gubanov and Valery Golubkin worked.
Anatoly Gubanov was arrested in December 2020. The details of the case are unknown. He lectured on the topic “Practical aerodynamics of high-speed aircraft” at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The MIPT clarified that the scientist does not have access to information constituting a state secret.
Valery Golubkin was arrested in April 2021. Golubkin dealt with the topic of high-speed aerodynamics. Lawyer Ivan Pavlov said that the FSB saw treason in the fact that Golubkin took part in an international project, under a contract concluded between TsAGI and the European Institute, during which, at the direction of his superiors, he sent reports on the work performed. According to him, permits were obtained for all these reports, confirming the absence of sensitive information in them.
The article also mentions Dmitry Kolker, a researcher at the Institute of Laser Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Novosibirsk State University, who died in a pre-trial detention center. He was also accused of treason. According to the project, he did not have joint scientific work with physicists from the ITAM. Khristianovich, his latest work was not related to hypersonic topics. But Kolker had an affiliation with Special Technologies LLC, whose main activity is, in particular, “the creation of mid-IR laser sources for guidance and countermeasure systems.” This affiliation is indicated in the publication of Dmitry Kolker in 2012, just at the time when work was underway on the project in the EU framework program.
One of the members of the expert commission, when asked whether it could be assumed that all those arrested associated with participation in this EU project, as well as Dmitry Kolker, were involved in the development of the Kinzhal missile, said that this was “almost unbelievable.”
“If that were the case, they would have a different level of secrecy, they would not have such free international contacts and open publications. Most likely, they fell into the “trap of dual-use technologies.” This happens when scientists who have access to closed subjects come to the attention of law enforcement agencies, because law enforcement agencies find references to their open work in data obtained from closed sources, for example, from special reports,” the commission member said.
“Any article and report can lead to accusations of treason.” Scientists continue to be arrested in Russia. There are already 4 of them in Novosibirsk in a year
