By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A prominent Russian physicist began serving a lengthy prison sentence as part of a more extensive crackdown on scientists allegedly aiding Ukraine and threatening Russia’s security.
Worthy News learned that in a trial reminiscent of the Soviet era, the Moscow city court found Alexander Shiplyuk, the 57-year-old director of a top Siberian science institute, guilty of “state treason” after a trial held behind closed doors.
He was sentenced to 15 years on “treason” charges in the latest prison term for a scientist working on the country’s hypersonic missile program.
Well-informed sources said Thursday that over a dozen senior Russian scientists have been detained in recent years.
At least three, including Shiplyuk, worked at the prestigious Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in Novosibirsk, Siberia’s largest city and a central scientific.
Experts have said the trials indicate a modern “spy mania” and growing paranoia among Russian political elites regarding its military production following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
CLASSIFIED INFO
The Russian independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta reported that Shiplyuk was suspected of sharing classified information at a scientific conference in China in 2017.
Shiplyuk denied the allegations, saying the information he presented was publicly available in open sources.
In May, Russia sentenced Anatoly Maslov, a 78-year-old professor of aerodynamics at the same institute and a colleague of Shiplyuk, to 14 years in prison on treason charges.
Russian media said he was accused of passing classified data related to Russia’s hypersonic missile program to German intelligence.
This was embarrassing for Russia, which has promoted 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 defense systems.
“Russia’s loose definition of espionage makes it easy to bring cases against scientists,” observed journalist Pjotr Sauer in The Guardian newspaper.
INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
Accusations include “their participation in international projects, even those initiated long before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine,” he added.
There have already been instances of scientists dying in pre-trial detention.
In October 2022, Valery Mitko, an 81-year-old Russian scientist arrested on high treason charges, died while under house arrest after several heart attacks.
Last year, Dmitry Kolker, 54, the director of the Laboratory of Quantum Optics at Novosibirsk State University, who was being held in a spy investigation, died two days after his arrest while being treated in a hospital for stage 4 cancer.
More deaths behind bars are expected as the lengthy sentences mean the accused experts could spend the rest of their lives in prison.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
More than 1 million people enrolled in Obamacare plans do not have Social Security numbers on file, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced alongside Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz, warning that the discovery points to major weaknesses in federal program oversight.
The Texas State Board of Education has approved a new required reading list that will place selected Bible passages before millions of public school students, marking one of the most significant moves in decades to restore biblical literacy to American classrooms.
he Supreme Court on Monday handed President Donald Trump a major victory on executive authority, ruling that he may fire senior officials at powerful regulatory agencies over policy differences, while also preserving procedural limits in a separate case involving the Federal Reserve.
Political uncertainty remained Monday in Serbia after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced he would resign within weeks and call early presidential and parliamentary elections following 18 months of student-led anti-government protests.
The Israeli government has unanimously approved a proposal to recognize the mass killing of Armenian Christians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I as genocide, a historic step that acknowledges one of the darkest chapters of Christian suffering in the modern Middle East.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that states may count mail-in ballots received after Election Day, so long as they were sent on or before Election Day, handing a major defeat to the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s administration in a closely watched election-law battle.
Residents of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, awoke Monday to a fresh aftershock as rescuers raced to find survivors four days after twin earthquakes devastated parts of the country, killing nearly 1,500 people and injuring more than 3,000.