Last week, Viktor Kudryavtsev, a scientist at one of Russia’s leading space research labs, was charged with state treason for a suspected leak of hypersonic missile technology to a NATO country in 2013.

A second Russian scientist has reportedly been charged with sharing state secrets with another country this month, a week after the high-profile detention of a space researcher on treason charges.

A member of the Public Monitoring Committee (PMC) prison watchdog said last Friday that a second scientist was found to have been detained on treason charges in July, despite prison wards having previously assured observers that only one scientist was being held.

Alexei Temiryov, 64, was detained on July 18 and placed under arrest for allegedly leaking secret documentation to Vietnam, his lawyer, Anna Polozova, was quoted as saying by the RBC news website Sunday.

His lawyer said that the information her client is accused of leaking was not classified.

“All of it is in the public record, it’s in every textbook in every library,” she told RBC.

