Russia Imprisons Top Physicists, Even as Putin Touts Their Technology
Russian scientists helped make their country a leader in developing cutting-edge missiles that fly at least five times as fast as the speed of sound. Then Russia started calling them traitors.
A Moscow court this week sentenced Alexander Shiplyuk, 57, the director of a Russian physics institute who specializes in hypersonic flight, to 15 years in prison for treason. Though the trial has been shrouded in secrecy, Mr. Shiplyuk’s advocates say he was accused of illegally sharing classified information. It was the latest step in a yearslong crackdown on some leading Russian physicists, a prong of the Russian government’s wide-ranging campaign of repression notable for its overlap with the country’s military industry.
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At least eight other physicists working in fields related to hypersonic and supersonic flight have been arrested since 2015, according to Perviy Otdel, a group of Russian lawyers who specialize in treason and espionage cases.
