MOSCOW, July 16. /TASS/. The Moscow City Court has prolonged the arrest term for Viktor Kudryavtsev, a 75-year-old employee of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TSNIIMASH) who is charged with high treason, TASS reported from the courtroom.
"The court rules to prolong the term of custody for defendant Kudryavtsev for three months, that is until October 20," the judge declared the verdict. Thus, the scientist will remain isolated from society for more than a year. His lawyers will appeal this decision.
Due to the presence of classified materials in the case, all sessions are closed. The lawyers repeatedly asked to rule a less restrictive preventive measure for the 75-year-old scientist (home arrest or prohibition of certain actions), referring to his age and state of health.
Employee of the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TSNIIMASH, the main scientific institute of the Roscosmos state corporation) Viktor Kudryavtsev was arrested on July 20, 2018. The investigators charge him with transferring classified information via e-mail to Belgium’s von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, with which TSNIIMASH cooperated under an agreement approved by the Russian government.
The scientist has been on intelligence services’ radars since 2014, and the case materials contain data of technical developments approved by TSNIIMASH under orders of European Union countries that were also used in creating Kinzhal and Avangard missile systems. The scientist pled not guilty.
Moscow’s Lefortovo Court also put into custody another TSNIIMASH employee, head of the Center of Heat Exchange and Aerogasdynamics Roman Kovalev, until August 5. His case is also classified. The Federal Security Service (FSB) charges him with high treason. Kudryavtsev’s lawyers say that Kovalev’s arrest may be linked with the high treason case of their defendant.