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FSB charges scientist suspected of spying for Asian power

Earlier, a source in law-enforcement agencies specified for TASS that Lukanin had been detained on suspicion of handing over to China secret Russian developments "related to alternative power sources"

MOSCOW, October 29. /TASS/. Investigators of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) charged Tomsk scientist Alexander Lukanin with high treason in favor of an Asian country, a source in law-enforcement agencies told TASS on Thursday.

"Alexander Lukanin was pressed with the charges under article 275 of Russia’s Criminal Code (‘High Treason’) in favor of an Asian country," the source said.

Lawyer Dmitry Myltsyn told TASS he did not know whether his defendant had been pressed with charges. Myltsyn earlier said Lukanin had rejected his services.

A court in the Siberian city of Tomsk arrested Lukanin following his apprehension in the criminal probe of high treason.

A source in law-enforcement agencies specified for TASS that Lukanin had been detained on suspicion of handing over to China secret Russian developments "related to alternative power sources." The source did not disclose details of the case, citing the ‘strictly confidential’ status of the criminal case. Later, Lukanin was taken to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention facility in Moscow.

As the data of open sources suggest, 64-year-old Lukanin worked at the Tomsk Polytechnic University and later at the Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Study within the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences where he was developing jointly with a group of scientists high-voltage power sources and was invited to Shenyang University in China after his retirement.