During the debate in the Moscow City Court, the state prosecution requested 12 years in a strict regime colony for MIPT Professor Valery Golubkin, the First Department human rights project reported. The scientist is accused of high treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The treason case was opened on April 12, 2021. On the same day, the scientist was sent to Lefortovo. 12 years is the minimum term under the article on treason. After the amendments were made, the maximum punishment was toughened from 20 years in prison to life imprisonment.
According to investigators, 71-year-old Valery Golubkin handed over documents containing state secrets to his colleagues from the Netherlands as part of an international project to create a hypersonic passenger aircraft HEXAFLY-INT.
According to the “First Department”, the documents were checked by three commissions, none of which found information constituting a state secret. Valery Golubkin himself does not admit guilt.
Valery Golubkin was engaged in theoretical developments and had a third form of access to state secrets: he did not work with information classified as “top secret” and “of special importance”. He is a leading researcher at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute, the author of over 120 papers in the field of aerodynamics.