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
Hundreds of Christians, including family members, have protested the killing of a young Christian agricultural worker by one or more Muslims in Pakistan’s eastern Punjab province and the alleged reluctance by authorities to properly investigate the case.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s newly announced 15% global import tariff is expected to take effect sometime this week as the administration moves to rebuild its tariff framework after a recent Supreme Court ruling struck down part of the president’s trade agenda.
President Donald Trump met Wednesday with leaders of major technology companies at the White House as they formally backed a new initiative designed to prevent the rapid expansion of artificial intelligence data centers from driving up electricity prices for American consumers.
Iran’s state television network briefly lost control of one of its main channels on Wednesday after hackers interrupted programming and aired a message from Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi calling on the Iranian military to side with protesters against the Islamic Republic.
Stocks rebounded after a report that Iran made indirect contact with the United States to negotiate an end to the war in the Middle East, boosting hopes that the conflict could be short-lived.
An American submarine has destroyed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean near Sri Lanka in the “first sinking of an enemy ship by a torpedo since World War II,” killing scores of people, the U.S. defense secretary confirmed Wednesday.
Israel and the United States are increasingly targeting Iran’s internal security apparatus as part of their ongoing military campaign, striking organizations responsible for suppressing protests and maintaining the Islamic Republic’s grip on power.