Russia accuses a top arctic researcher of spying for China

Observers of Russian-Chinese relations believe that allegations of espionage against an Arctic researcher could highlight the growing competition between the two countries in the region. Alexander Jabov, head of Russia’s program in the Asia-Pacific program at the Carnegie Moscow Center, said that Moscow and Beijing had established a strategic partnership in the Arctic amid escalating tensions with the West, but Russia was keen on any military cooperation in this area. .

“China really shows that it has a military ambition through the way intelligence looks at these things,” Jabuyev said. “Submarines operate in neutral waters and we may see a new front for the development of the Chinese global navy. The submarines that could operate in the Arctic are part of that.”

Many Russian academics have been accused or convicted of passing on state secrets to foreign governments in recent years. In 2018, a Moscow court charged Viktor Kudryavtsev, a space engineer, with treason for sharing a report containing information about Russian hypersonic weapons with a Belgian institute after a joint research program, TASS news agency reported.

Kudryavtsev, who was in his late seventies, spent more than a year in a detention center but was transferred to house arrest because of his poor health. His case is still under investigation before the trial. The Tass news agency reported that two other employees of the same institute where Kudryavtsev was working had been arrested since on charges of government treason.

Another astronaut, Vladimir Labgin, 79, was released from prison last week at the start of the parole, after a 2016 conviction for passing technical details about a Russian spacecraft to China, according to TASS.

All scholars have denied wrongdoing, saying that the information they are accused of sharing has not been classified.

Lawyer Pavlov suggested that the cases are the product of paranoia within Russian special services. Court statistics show that the total number of cases related to state security increased significantly after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, which generated “military sentiments” in law enforcement.

According to data released by the Russian Supreme Court, from 2009 to 2013, a total of 25 people were convicted of treason, and in 2014 alone there were 15 convictions. Between 2014 and 2019, 51 people were convicted of treason.

“There is a group of at-risk people who possess some sensitive information or collect this information. They are first and foremost scholars, but they may be journalists or civil activists,” the lawyer added. “[The special services] Watch who has international relations and foreign contacts, so a little red light flashes as soon as they travel abroad … and the mentality of our agents says if a scientist goes abroad, of course he goes there to sell secrets.