Top Russian Hypersonics Research Scientist Arrested for Treason

A top scientist from the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) has been taken into custody on high treason charges.

The institute’s scientific director Vasily Fomin told government-owned TASS on Friday that Alexander Shiplyuk, Director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics under Russian RAS Siberian Branch, had been arrested.

"Investigative activities were held in the institute. They are linked with our director, Alexander Shiplyuk, who has been arrested," he said. "He is faced with the same charges as Maslov (Anatoly Maslov, a chief research fellow of the institute, who was arrested earlier for High treason).”

The suspect has been taken to Moscow’s Lefortovo detention center.

Dr. Alexander Shiplyuk, an acclaimed Russian scientist and a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, specializes in high-speed aerogas dynamics and experimental research of gas flows. Key areas of his research interest include experimental aerothermal dynamics of hypersonic aircraft with straight jet engines.

The institute’s chief research fellow Anatoly Maslov was arrested on high treason charges on June 27 and was taken to Moscow’s Lefortovo detention center. A source close to the investigation told TASS that the man is suspected of sharing classified information linked with hypersonic research. His case is being probed into by Russia’s Federal Security Service.

On June 30, a Novosibirsk court sanctioned the arrest of another scientist - Dmitry Kolker of the Institute of Laser Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch. The man had the fourth stage cancer but was taken from a private clinic to Moscow’s Lefortovo detention center, where he died on July 2.