MOSCOW, June 22. /TASS/. The chief of the Center of Heat Transfer and Aerogasdynamics at the Central Research Institute for Machine Building (TsNIIMash), Roman Kovalyov, who has pled guilty of high treason, has been sentenced to seven years in prison, a source in the special services has said.

"Kovalyov was found guilty under article 275 of the Criminal Code (high treason) and sentenced to seven years in a maximum security penitentiary," the source said.

Originally Kovalyov was tried as an accomplice in the case of his mentor, TsNIIMash staffer Viktor Kudryavtsev, also accused of high treason. Later Kovalyov began to be investigated separately and his case was sent to the Moscow Regional Court for consideration on the merits. The trial was fast-tracked, because Kovalyov pled guilty.

The sentence was read out to Kovalyov on Monday, June 22. The court hearings were held behind closed doors, because some of the materials constituted a state secret. The sentence has not taken effect yet and can be appealed.

Kudryavtsev case

Viktor Kudryavtsev, 75, a staffer of the TsNIIMash (the leading institute of the public corporation Roscosmos) was arrested on July 20, 2018 and released from custody on September 27 on his own recognizance. He has undergone medical examination at an oncological center in Moscow in connection with a serious disease. He continues to be investigated. Kudryavtsev is suspected of passing classified information by e-mail to the von Karman Institute in Belgium, with which the TsNIIMash institute cooperated under an agreement approved at the government level. The scientist has been under the surveillance of special services since 2014. The materials of the case include TsNIIMash-approved information about research and development, carried out on orders from EU countries. The R&D products and solutions in question were also used in creating the missile systems Kinzhal and Avangard.