Espionage

Russian space industry scientist allegedly shared top-secret data with NATO — lawyer

A Russian scientist from the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building, Viktor Kudryavtsev, who was detained last month in Russia on high treason charges, was allegedly involved in sharing top-secret data with a NATO member state, his lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov told TASS citing investigation case materials.

Last Wednesday, investigators pressed high treason charges against Kudryavtsev, a scientist with the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash, the parent research institute of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos).

"According to the investigation case materials that we have, Kudryavtsev had been allegedly handing over classified information to one of the NATO member-states," his lawyer Yevgeny Smirnov told TASS.

Smirnov said, however, that the case materials at the issue mentioned "neither the country, where Kudryavtsev had been allegedly surrendering the [classified] data, nor the type of this information."