Novosibirsk physicist Valery Zvegintsev was arrested on suspicion of "high treason" (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). This became known from an open letter, which was published by the staff of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. S. A. Khristianovich of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ITAM SB RAS). It begins with the fact that its authors demand that the Russian authorities "protect Russian aerodynamic science <…> from the impending collapse."
Employees of the institute mention that three of their colleagues were arrested over the past year: Anatoly Alexandrovich Maslov, Alexander Nikolaevich Shiplyuk and Valery Ivanovich Zvegintsev. The chief researcher of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences Maslov was arrested in early July. Shiplyuk, director of the institute, was arrested a month later. The arrest of Zvegintsev became known for the first time.
“The materials of all three criminal cases are closed from the public, however, we know from open sources that the acts for which our colleagues can spend the rest of their lives behind bars are something that all over the world, including in Russia, is considered simply an obligatory component of conscientious and high-quality scientific activity is making presentations at international seminars and conferences, publishing articles in high-ranking journals, participating in international scientific projects,” the authors of the letter write.
The appeal also mentions the case of the death of Dmitry Kolker, head of the laboratory of quantum optical technologies at the NSU Faculty of Physics. On June 30, 2022, he was also arrested for "treason". According to his son, the reason for the arrest was that he allegedly passed data containing state secrets to China. At the time of his arrest, he was taken directly from the hospital where he was being treated for terminal cancer. Three days later he died in jail.
