MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. 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."

Candidate of Technical Sciences Kudryavtsev was arrested on July 19. As soon as the scientist was detained, investigators made a decision to search the offices of TsNIImash and other facilities. As the TsNIImash press office told TASS on July 23, the investigative team had no questions to the research institute’s current management and the investigation relates to the 2013 events.

According to earlier reports, the Moscow City court was set to examine on August 2 a complaint for placing the scientist accused of high treason into custody.

The Russian business daily Kommersant reported last month that an investigative team from the Federal Security Service (FSB) had searched the offices of TsNIImash staffers, as well as the office of Director of the Roscosmos Research and Analytical Center Dmitry Paison.

The daily reported that investigative measures were carried out as part of criminal proceedings instituted on charges of high treason under Russia’s Criminal Code, and about 10 employees working in the space industry were under investigation for collaborating with Western intelligence services.

The FSB determined that Western intelligence agencies had found out about the results of the Russian space industry’s ‘top secret’ work on hypersonic technologies, according to the paper.