Scientist sentenced to 12 years in maximum security prison for ‘treason’ by Russian court

He has never been authorised to work with classified documents

Valery Golubkin, a professor with the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, has been sentenced to 12 years in a maximum security prison for ‘treason’, Mediazona reports.

This is exactly the same punishment the prosecutor requested for him last week.

Golubkin was charged with treason on 12 April 2021. He was arrested and put into the Lefortovo pretrial jail on the same day.

Six months later, in a letter from his jail, Golubkin wrote that the case had been opened against him “in connection with participation in an international scientific project to develop the concept of a high-speed passenger aircraft”, which “was carried out according to a pre-adopted open program and a plan agreed with Russia’s Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Golubkin says his arrest is connected with the testimony of Anatoly Gubanov, his supervisor.

The investigation claims Golubkin shared two of his reports containing classified information with his co-workers in the Netherlands. He did so on the instruction of Gubanov. Golubkin pleads not guilty.

“Before those documents were sent, three commissions had confirmed that there was no classified information there, and that those reports were available to be published and shared with international partners,” Pervy Otdel says.

Valery Golubkin is a professor with the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a Doctor of Engineering, the leading research fellow with the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute. He wrote over 120 scientific papers in aerodynamics. Golubkin was in charge of theoretical design and was never authorised to work with classified documents, Pervy Otdel says.