Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, regularly brags that his nation is the world leader in the development of hypersonic weapons, which can travel faster than sound by more than five times.
However, in recent years, a number of Russian physicists who were working on the science behind them have been accused of treason and put in jail in what rights groups saw as an excessive crackdown.
Three of those detained have since passed away, while the most are elderly. One passed away shortly after being taken from his hospital bed while suffering from advanced cancer.
Another is the 68-year-old scholar Vladislav Galkin, whose southern Russian town of Tomsk was raided in April 2023.
At 4:00 a.m., armed men wearing black masks arrived, opened cabinets, and took documents bearing scientific formulas.
Tatyana, Mr. Galkin’s wife, claims she has informed their grandsons, who enjoyed playing chess with him, that he is currently on a business trip. She claims that she is not allowed to discuss his situation because of an order from the FSB, Russia’s security agency.
Twelve physicists who are connected to hypersonic technology or organizations that develop it have been detained since 2015.
They are all accused of high treason, which includes giving foreign nations access to national secrets.
It is unclear exactly what they are accused of in Russian treason trials because they take place behind closed doors.
