Russian Missile Scientist Sentenced to 14 Years

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Facts

• A Russian court Tuesday sentenced physicist Anatoly Maslov to 14 years in prison after finding him guilty of sharing secret information related to Russia's hypersonic missile program with Germany.¹
• Two of Maslov's colleagues, Alexander Shiplyuk and Valery Zvegintsev, have also been charged with treason. Meanwhile, Maslov denies the charge.²
• The hypersonic specialist, who was arrested in June 2022, said he 'devoted his life to his family and domestic science' and that he hadn't passed the alleged information.³
• Maslov — who worked at a Siberian institute — had studied weapons capable of carrying payloads reportedly up to 10 times the speed of sound.²
• This comes after Alexander Kuranov, the head of Russia's hypersonic missiles program, was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $1,065 for treason in April.⁴
• Russia, in recent years, has made multiple arrests, especially of scientists, for alleged crimes against the state.⁵

Sources: ¹The Moscow Times, ²Al Jazeera, ³Times of Malta, ⁴Newsweek and ⁵wsj.com.

Narratives

• Anti-Russia narrative, as provided by The Telegraph. Imprisoning these scientists on trumped-up charges is unacceptable. Clearly, Russia is paranoid and attempting to safeguard its technological advantage regardless of its violations of human rights. Russian scientists must be careful working with other countries while Putin remains in power.
• Pro-Russia narrative, as provided by TASS. Russia is facing grave security risks in this time of war and it can't let its defenses down. If these scientists were found guilty of treason, they must be held accountable, and the security agencies must continue working to weed out traitors. Other nations should stay out of Russia's business.