Reuters: Russia Accuses Three Hypersonic Missile Experts of Providing Confidential Information to China

The head of a leading Russian scientific organization, along with two other hypersonic missile technology experts, has been arrested on suspicion of 'treason.' Reuters reported this on Wednesday, June 3, citing two individuals familiar with the case. They stated that this director is accused of 'transferring military secrets to China.' According to these sources, Alexander Shiplyuk, head of the Cristiano-vich Siberian Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, is suspected of providing classified information to the Chinese at a scientific conference in China in 2017. The 56-year-old man claims he is innocent and insists that the information was not classified and was freely available on the internet. The nature of the charges against this director, who was arrested last August, had not been previously reported. In recent years, several other Russian scientists have also been arrested on charges of leaking secrets to China. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the accusations against the three detained experts and previous treason cases related to China, stated that security services are monitoring potential cases of 'betrayal of the homeland.' The Chinese Foreign Ministry, in response to questions about accusations against Beijing for targeting Russian scientists to obtain sensitive research results, stated that China-Russia relations are based on 'non-commitment, non-confrontation, and not targeting third parties.' The ministry said, 'This relationship is fundamentally different from what some military and intelligence alliances have put together based on their Cold War mentality.' Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly stated that Moscow is a leader in hypersonic missiles worldwide. These missiles are considered advanced weapons capable of carrying warheads at speeds ten times the speed of sound to strike air defense systems. Meanwhile, the United States has repeatedly reported successful tests of advanced hypersonic weapons. For instance, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Pentagon, announced in July 2022 that it had recently successfully tested two hypersonic missiles from Lockheed Martin. At the same time, Lockheed stated that this was 'the second successful test of this weapon' and demonstrated resistance to operational hypersonic speeds, gathering important data for use in further flight tests and confirming safe separation from the aircraft. In another separate hypersonic weapon test in the U.S., the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency also confirmed that it had successfully conducted the first test of the hypersonic weapon 'Operational Fires.' Recent successful tests indicate progress in efforts to develop hypersonic weapons in the United States. These efforts have raised increasing concerns about the U.S. falling behind in the arms race in this area due to their costs and various unsuccessful tests. The competition in hypersonic weapon production is mainly seen as a domain for the 'superpowers' arms race.