FSB against TsNIIMASh-Export

On October 25, 2005 the Lefortovo Court santioned the arrests of the academic Igor Reshetin, general director of TsNIIMASh-Export, his CFO, Sergei Tverdokhlebov, and his deputy for security, Alexander Rozhkin. All three were placed in Lefortovo.

TsNIIMASh-Export is a state-owned Russian space technology company run by the Central Scientific Research Institute for Machine Building, and located in Korolyov, the center of the Russian space community and home to“Mission Control”for all Russian space flights.

FSB investigators did not accuse them of spying or of divulging state secrets. The men were charged with embezzlement and violations of export rules. Later they were accused of passing dual-use technology to China and also of smuggling.

In December 2007 the three were sentenced to five to eleven years behind bars.

A few days later a letter from one of the convicted men was published on Human Rights Web site (www.hro .org), stating:“If our director had agreed to take part in a dialogue with the secret services, there would have been no dire conse- quences, while both his personal position and that of his firm would have been bolstered in the space technology market. The firm would have been protected by the FSB’s economic security service.”

Agentura.Ru, February 10, 2011