Russia jails hypersonic scientist for 15 years after treason trial

By Lucy Papachristou

LONDON (Reuters) -A Russian court sentenced physicist Alexander Shiplyuk to 15 years on treason charges on Tuesday in the latest of several cases against experts working on the science underpinning Russia's development of hypersonic missiles.

Shiplyuk, the 57-year-old director of a top Siberian science institute, was arrested in August 2022. Two of his colleagues, Anatoly Maslov and Valery Zvegintsev, were also detained on suspicion of treason. Maslov, 78, was handed a 14-year sentence in May.

Shiplyuk's lawyer did not immediately reply to a Reuters comment request asking if the scientist intended to appeal the verdict, which was reported by Russian news agencies. His trial was held behind closed doors, as is customary in treason proceedings in Russia.

Commenting on Shiplyuk's case and those of his colleagues last May, the Kremlin said the men face "very serious accusations", adding that the matter was one for the security services.

Russia has billed itself as a world leader in hypersonic missiles, cutting-edge weapons capable of carrying payloads at up to 10 times the speed of sound to punch through air-defence systems.

The trio from the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM) in Novosibirsk are among nearly a dozen scientists researching such technology against whom Russia has brought treason cases in recent years.

Two people familiar with Shiplyuk's case told Reuters last May that the ITAM director was suspected of handing over classified material at a scientific conference in China in 2017.

The sources said Shiplyuk maintained his innocence and insisted the information in question wasn't classified and was freely available online.

Several other Russian scientists arrested on treason charges were also accused of betraying secrets to Beijing, according to state media.

Shiplyuk's institute, sited at the Akademgorodok science campus near the city of Novosibirsk, says on its website that it is registered as a part of Russia's military-industrial complex.

Two U.S. scientists who knew Maslov and Shiplyuk told Reuters last year that the arrested Russians were engaged in one element of the work needed to build a hypersonic missile, a process that also includes the integration of sensors, navigational systems, and propulsion.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)