The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow has placed 35-year-old Shchyolkovo resident Maksim Kravchuk in pretrial detention in a treason case. The news was reported by Ostorozhno, Novosti and RBC.
According to the media reports, Kravchuk worked at a research institute within the Roscosmos system. He was known to study physics-related topics, including turbulence. Ostorozhno, Novosti says he was detained on June 24, which was also his birthday.
The details of the criminal case have not been disclosed: the file is classified and marked secret. Information available from open sources indicates that Kravchuk is a researcher at the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIImash), part of Roscosmos, and the author of several academic papers on aerodynamics.
Among his co-authored works is a paper titled “Issues of turbulence modeling for calculating supersonic high-temperature jets”. Ostorozhno, Novosti also reports that in 2016 he received an apartment from the authorities under a social mortgage program for young scientists.
The same outlet says Kravchuk was also developing his own business and, until February 2022, regularly traveled to Ukraine and Moldova.
Journalists note that this is already the fourth case in recent years in which a TsNIImash employee has been accused of treason. In 2019, three other researchers from the institute were arrested on suspicion of passing information to foreign intelligence about developments related to hypersonic weapons. Former TsNIImash head Roman Kovalev was later sentenced to seven years in a penal colony.