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IPFS News Link • Russia

Russia arrests top hypersonic missile scientist on treason charge...

• https://www.dailymail.co, By WILL STEWART

Russia has detained one of its top hypersonic scientists on suspicion of high treason.

Professor Alexander Kuranov, 73, was held by the FSB counterintelligence service which accuses him of passing secrets to an unspecified NATO country.

He is due in Lefortovo court in Moscow today and is expected to be detained for two months pending investigations.

His arrest comes after Briton David Smith, a security guard at the British embassy in Germany, was taken for questioning on suspicion of passing confidential information to the Kremlin.

Smith - described by neighbours as short, overweight and a man who kept himself to himself - is accused of passing classified terrorism documents to a Russian spy.

His arrest comes as Russia is rushing forward its deployment of new-age hypersonic missiles as part of a major modernisation of the Kremlin's military machine overseen by Vladimir Putin.

Kuranov is a key figure in developing hypersonic technologies in Russia, but the FSB - formerly known as the KGB - believes he passed classified data to a Western intelligence source.

He is the general director and chief designer of the Scientific Research Enterprise of Hypersonic Systems (NIPGS).


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