A Russian scientist has been charged with spying after allegedly trying to sell space research information to China.
Russia's domestic security service, the FSB, said yesterday the scientist had been arrested and charged with treason in the Siberian town of Krasnoyarsk. He is accused of trying to sell research on the effects of space on satellites.
While the arrested man was not officially named, colleagues said he was Mr Valentin Danilov, head of the ThermoPhysics Centre of the Krasnoyarsk State Technical University.
Colleagues have written an open letter to local prosecutors demanding that he be released from detention. They say Mr Danilov's work had been considered a state secret until 1992 but that status had been lifted. Chinese specialists had become familiar with his work, which was in the public domain, they added.
There has been a spate of spy scandals in Russia recently, some involving scientists working with foreigners. One involved US businessman Edmond Pope, sentenced to 20 years for stealing secrets of an underwater missile but later pardoned by President Putin.
A researcher at Russia's respected USA and Canada Institute, Mr Igor Sutyagin, is still on trial on charges of passing secrets about Russian nuclear submarines to the United States and Britain.
Mr Sutyagin, an arms expert, was arrested by the FSB in October 1999 and faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. He denies the charges.