Moscow's Meshchansky District Court has ordered the arrest of physicist Maxim Kravchuk on charges of high treason under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code, according to court records. Details of the case remain classified.
Kravchuk, 35, worked at the Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TsNIIMash), part of the state space corporation Roscosmos. He authored several scientific papers on aerodynamics, including research on turbulence modeling for supersonic high-temperature jets.
In 2016, Kravchuk received an apartment through a social mortgage program for young scientists, the outlet Ostorozhno, Novosti reported. The same outlet said he simultaneously ran his own business and regularly traveled to Ukraine and Moldova until February 2022.
According to TV Rain, Kravchuk was detained on June 24 — his birthday — and placed in custody at the end of June. An appeal hearing is scheduled for July 29.
Kravchuk is at least the fourth TsNIIMash employee charged with treason since 2019, TV Rain noted. In 2019, three scientists were arrested on suspicion of passing information about hypersonic weapons development to foreign intelligence. Former TsNIIMash director Roman Kovalev was sentenced to seven years in prison.
According to the First Department legal project, in the first quarter of 2026 the number of treason cases reaching Russian courts exceeded 2025 figures by 20%. In 2025, 468 people were convicted of treason and espionage — the highest annual total since the Criminal Code took effect in 1997, according to a report by the Parubets Analytics association commissioned by First Department. Since the start of the war, 1,006 people have been convicted under these articles.