Source: Reuters
“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). 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. President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Russia is a world leader in hypersonic missiles – cutting-edge weapons capable of carrying payloads at up to 10 times the speed of sound to punch through air-defence systems.” (04/18/24)