A spokeswoman for the court said today, Tuesday, that a Russian court has detained for two months a professor of physics at a prestigious university in Moscow on charges of treason.
Moscow court spokeswoman Lefortovsky Daria Rosmakhova told AFP that Valery Golubkin was arrested by security forces Monday through June 12.
“It is suspicious. The charges have not been announced yet.
Valery Golubkin studies high-speed aerodynamics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MFTI), one of the best scientific institutions in Russia.
Institute spokesman Igor Krasikov confirmed to AFP that Mr. Golubkin’s main employer is the Central Aerodynamics Institute (TsAGI) located on the outskirts of the Russian capital Zhukovsky.
A TsAGI spokeswoman declined to comment, describing the institute as a “high security facility”.
According to his lawyer Alexander Tymoshenko, Valery Golubkin, 69, is in poor health and has participated in “classic international cooperation” projects in various projects, but claims that he has not committed any treason.
Anatoly Zhubanov, another TsAGI employee, was arrested in December. He is accused of passing classified information to the intelligence services of a European state.
Trials of “espionage” or “high treason”, which are still being conducted behind closed doors and the details of which are classified, have multiplied in recent years in Russia, where the authorities regularly claim that they thwart Western plots or operations.
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