Hmm: Russia arrests three hypersonic missile scientists for treason

A trio of Vladimir Putin’s leading hypersonic scientists have been detained on suspicion of high treason in what fellow scientists have declared a ‘witch hunt’ …

News of their detention on suspicion of high treason comes days after a Russian missile assault on Ukraine’s capital was largely ineffective, with Ukrainian officials claiming their US-supplied Patriot air defence system managed to down several of Moscow’s Kinzhal – or ‘Dagger’ – hypersonic missiles, which Putin once boasted were ‘unstoppable’.

And their institute has protested the arrests, claiming the men were being prosecuted over normal scientific activity such as making presentations and taking part in international conferences and projects, and publishing articles in major journals.

[The ‘treason’ in this case is defined as ’embarrassing the tsar’. Putin made those new missile systems out to be an existential threat to the West, only to have a second-tier power at best defeat his new wonder weapon. Either that is the result of treason by the scientists or incompetence by the tsar. It was not tough to predict which way the tsar would read it. — Ed]