Russia probes ‘leak of missile secrets’

Russia’s FSB security services raided a top space research centre yesterday as part of an investigation into staff alleged to have passed secret information on Moscow’s hypersonic missile programme to the West.

The raid took place on the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMash), which is Russian space agency Roscosmos’s in-house think tank. Sources told Kommersant, a daily newspaper, that the probe was over ‘‘high treason’’, with around 10 people suspected of ‘‘cooperation with Western secret services’’.

Vladimir Ustimenko, a Roscosmos spokesman, confirmed the search to the newspaper and said the centre was providing maximum assistance to the security services. The search came just one day after the defence ministry published several videos of new weapons systems on YouTube.

The general features of these weapons, known as Avangard and Burevestnik, have been publicly known since March, when they were announced by President Vladimir Putin.

It was not immediately clear what information might have been leaked, with investigators telling Kommersant and other outlets that information on hypersonic projects was revealed to ‘‘Western intelligence services’’.

TsNIIMash is not a military outfit, but Kommersant reports it was involved in some capacity with hypersonic missile research conducted by the Tactical Missile Corporation, a different company.

According to unidentified security sources, ‘‘it has been established that the leak occurred from employees of TsNIIMash’’.

Those employees, it was said, were in contact with Dmitry Payson, a former TsNIIMash employee who now works for Roscosmos.

Payson, a rocket scientist, is well known in international space communities. Roscosmos is the main international partner of Nasa.

– Telegraph Group