A Russian scientist who worked on hypersonic technologies was handed a seven-year jail sentence on Thursday for treason after he was accused of passing state secrets to foreign nationals.
A representative for St Petersburg's court system said Alexander Kuranov, 76, would be sent to a high-security prison and fined 100,000 roubles (1,000 US dollars.)
At the time of his arrest in 2021, Kuranov was the general director of St Petersburg-based Hypersonics Systems Research Facility, where he oversaw work on a new version of a Soviet-era hypersonic aircraft dubbed Ayaks. Kuranov was accused of passing secret information to a foreign citizen about hypersonic technology research that he had worked on for a long time, the Interfax news agency reported in 2021.
The court spokesperson said his conviction came after two trials. Treason and espionage cases are traditionally held behind closed doors in Russia.