Second Russian scientist charged with treason for allegedly leaking secret documents to Vietnam

The Moscow Times
Mon, 30 Jul 2018 11:07 UTC

© The Duran

Alexei Petrovich Temerov is reportedly being held on charges of treason in Lefortovo Prison.

A second Russian scientist has reportedly been charged with sharing state secrets with another country this month, a week after the high-profile detention of a space researcher on treason charges.

Last week, Viktor Kudryavtsev, a scientist at one of Russia's leading space research labs, was charged with state treason for a suspected leak of hypersonic missile technology to a NATO country in 2013.

A member of the Public Monitoring Committee (PMC) prison watchdog said last Friday that a second scientist was found to have been detained on treason charges in July, despite prison wards having previously assured observers that only one scientist was being held.

Alexei Temiryov, 64, was detained on July 18 and placed under arrest for allegedly leaking secret documentation to Vietnam, his lawyer, Anna Polozova, was quoted as saying by the RBC news website Sunday.

His lawyer said that the information her client is accused of leaking was not classified.

"All of it is in the public record, it's in every textbook in every library," she told RBC.

Comment: What's up with the spying scandal of Russia's Roscosmos?

The Federal Security Service (FSB) has initiated an investigation in Russia's Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash; a subsidiary of Roscosmos). The reason of the probe is the supposed leak of information to Western intelligence agencies concerning Russian research into hypersonic technologies.
[..]
The Russian business daily Kommersant reported that TsNIImash staff offices were searched by an investigation team from the Federal Security Service. Furthermore, the team has searched the office of Director of the Roscosmos Research and Analytical Center Dmitry Paison. TASS reported that according to the newspaper an investigation was carried out as part of the criminal proceedings instituted on charges of high treason under the Russian Criminal Code. Approximately 10 employees working in the space industry are under investigation for collaboration with Western intelligence services.
[..]
TASS reports that Member of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission Yevgeny Yenikeyev earlier said that a Moscow court had authorized the arrest of TsNIImash's 74-year-old employee Viktor Kudryavtsev accused of high treason. The court which authorized the arrest was not specified. Utsimenko, himself, confirmed the arrest of the scientist, however he provided no additional information. TsNIImash refuses any comments as reported by TASS.