Two Russian physicists working in hypersonic research jailed for 12.5 years on treason charges in Novosibirsk

Valery Zvegintsev, a researcher at the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and founder of the High-Speed Aerogasdynamics Laboratory, was detained in Novosibirsk in 2023. His colleague and co-author from Tomsk, Vladislav Galkin, was detained later. Both were charged with treason, reportedly over a paper on gas dynamics they had published in a foreign journal.

In 2024, courts sentenced two other scientists from the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics on treason charges. Former institute director Alexander Shiplyuk received 15 years in prison, while former chief researcher Anatoly Maslov was sentenced to 14 years.

In the spring of 2023, researchers at the institute wrote an open letter in defense of their arrested colleagues, warning of an “impending collapse” of Russian aerodynamics science:

“The materials of all three criminal cases are closed to the public; however, we know from open sources that the actions for which our colleagues may spend the rest of their lives behind bars amount to what is considered worldwide, including in Russia, to be essential to research integrity and quality: presenting at international seminars and conferences, publishing papers in top-tier journals, and participating in international research projects.”

According to the scientists, they do not see how one can continue working in an environment where “any article or presentation could become grounds for charges of treason.”