Another Russian Rocket Developer Arrested for Treason, Worked on Angara-A5

A Moscow court has arrested another Russian scientist on treason charges: 35-year-old Maksim Kravchuk, an employee of the Central Research Institute for Machine Building (TsNIIMash).

The Insider reported this.

In the case file on the Moscow City Court’s website, the accused is listed as “Kravchuk M. O.” He is charged under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code (“High Treason”).

Kravchuk was detained on June 24, his birthday. The criminal case is classified, so the content of the charges and the circumstances of the alleged treason remain unknown.

Kravchuk’s scientific work focused mainly on the numerical modeling of gas-dynamic processes during the launch of launch vehicles.

His research focused on the effects of supersonic rocket-engine jets on launch structures, shock-wave processes, and the use of supercomputer modeling in the design of launch facilities.

In particular, Kravchuk participated in studies of gas-dynamic processes during the launches of Angara-A5 launch vehicles.

In 2015, he became one of the authors of a paper on computational and experimental methods for studying the launch of the Angara. The paper took second place at a conference of young scientists in the rocket and space industry.

In another study, Kravchuk and his co-authors modeled the interaction of supersonic combustion-product jets with various obstacles.

Such calculations enable estimation of the loads on elements of a launch facility after the engines start and as the rocket leaves the launch pad.

A separate scientific paper by Kravchuk examined the selection of turbulence models for modeling supersonic high-temperature jets.

Maksim Kravchuk is at least the fourth known employee of the Central Research Institute for Machine Building to be accused of treason by the Russian authorities.

Previously, Vladimir Lapygin, Viktor Kudryavtsev, and Roman Kovalev were convicted or prosecuted under the same article.

Their cases are generally associated with a series of criminal prosecutions of Russian scientists known as the “hypersonics case.”

At the same time, there is currently no confirmation that Kravchuk’s case is directly related to research into hypersonic technologies or to previous criminal proceedings against other employees of the institute.