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Detectives harbor no suspicions on head of space research institute rocked by spy scandal

Roscosmos Spokesman Ustimenko confirmed to TASS that the scientist had been taken into custody but offered no details
CEO of the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building Oleg Gorshkov Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS
CEO of the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building Oleg Gorshkov
© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

MOSCOW, July 23. /TASS/. Investigators harbor no suspicions on current CEO of the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash) Oleg Gorshkov as the high treason case relates to the 2013 events while he came to head the organization in 2015, the TsNIImash press office told TASS on Monday.

TsNIImash is the parent research institute of Russia’s State Space Corporation Roscosmos.

Roscosmos Spokesman Vladimir Ustimenko told TASS earlier on Monday that a commission set up by the state space corporation will start work this week to probe the activity of the TsNIImash. The commission, which is led by Roscosmos Deputy CEO Sergei Dyomin, has been set up after some staffers of Roscosmos’s central research institute were accused of leaking state secrets to Western intelligence services.

"The investigation has no questions to the TsNIImash current management. The institute’s Director General Oleg Gorshkov came to head the institute in 2015 while the investigation relates to the 2013 events," the press office said.

Roscosmos said earlier on Monday that the high treason case and searches in the Central Research Institute of Machine-Building (TsNIImash) and the state space corporation were related to the 2013 events.

As Roscosmos said, "there are no questions to the staff of the enterprise [TsNIImash] and the state corporation [Roscosmos] for other periods of activity, and the investigation continues."

Member of the Moscow Public Monitoring Commission Yevgeny Yenikeyev earlier told TASS that a Moscow court had authorized the arrest of TsNIImash’s 74-year-old staffer Viktor Kudryavtsev accused of high treason. He didn’t specify, however, which court had sanctioned the staffer’s arrest. Roscosmos Spokesman Ustimenko confirmed to TASS that the scientist had been taken into custody but offered no details. TsNIImash declined to comment on the information on the arrest.