MOSCOW, May 24. /TASS/. The Kremlin does not see any evidence that scientists who are accused of spying tend to work for China, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.

"No, I would not draw conclusions about any trends in this case," the Kremlin spokesman said when asked if he saw a certain trend in the fact that when scientists are arrested for treason, they are often accused of having ties to China.

Peskov stressed that Russia’s security services are doing their duty.

"They protect state secrets and monitor the situation for cases involving suspicions of high treason," he said, pointing out that this ongoing work is crucial.

"We can hardly talk about any trends here," the presidential press secretary concluded.

On May 17, an open letter was published on the website of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), in which scientists informed that Valery Zvegintsev was suspected of high treason along with other aerodynamics scientists fromthe same institute, Anatoly Maslov and Alexander Shiplyuk, who were detained last summer and placed under arrest in Moscow’s Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. In the open letter, the institute’s employees ask Russian authorities, representatives of the scientific community and industrial companies to stand up for the national aerodynamics field. The authors of the letter do not understand "how to do their job" as, in their opinion, "any article or report can spark accusations of high treason."

Commenting earlier on this issue, Peskov said that the Kremlin had read the letter from the RAS Siberian branch scientists, but could not offer any comment as the investigation is ongoing.