Valery Zvegintsev
| Valery Zvegintsev | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Валерий Иванович Звегинцев |
| Born | August 20, 1944 Donetsk, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union |
| 🎓 Alma mater | Kharkiv Aviation Institute |
| 💼 Occupation | |
| Known for | Founding the High-Speed Aerogasdynamics Laboratory at ITAM; AT-303 hypersonic wind tunnel; world-first scramjet positive thrust (1978) |
| 🏅 Awards | Zhukovsky Prize (silver medal) |
Valery Ivanovich Zvegintsev (Russian: Валерий Иванович Звегинцев; born 20 August 1944) is a Russian scientist and doctor of technical sciences specialising in experimental aerodynamics at hypersonic speeds. A chief researcher at the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk, he is the founder of the institute's High-Speed Aerogasdynamics Laboratory and the author of more than 300 scientific publications, one monograph, and 10 patents. In 2023, he was arrested on treason charges as part of the broader prosecution of Russian hypersonic scientists; on 5 May 2026, at the age of 82, he was sentenced to 12.5 years in a strict-regime penal colony, making him the oldest person to receive a treason conviction in modern Russian history.[1][2]
Early life and education
Zvegintsev was born on 20 August 1944 in Donetsk, in the Ukrainian SSR of the Soviet Union. He studied mechanical engineering at the Kharkiv Aviation Institute (now the National Aerospace University, Kharkiv), graduating with a diploma engineer degree in 1968.[3][4]
Scientific career
After graduating, Zvegintsev joined the Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM) of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk, as an engineer in 1968. He rose through the ranks to senior engineer (1970), senior scientist (1985), and head of the research group NIS-21 (1995), which studied combustion in gas flows. He also taught students and supervised two doctoral candidates at Novosibirsk State University and Novosibirsk State Technical University.[3][5]
In 2001, Zvegintsev founded the laboratory "Aerogasdynamics of High Speeds" (Aerogazodinamika bolshikh skorostey) at ITAM, a facility dedicated to hypersonic technologies. Before establishing the laboratory, his team had been involved in the creation of the AT-303, an adiabatic compression wind tunnel that is the only facility in the world capable of reproducing full-scale Reynolds number values at hypersonic speeds. His work included the development of design methods for aircraft powered by ramjet engines, which were transferred to and used by Russian defence industry firms KBP Shipunov and NPO Splav in Tula. In tests of a scramjet model with hydrogen combustion at ITAM's Transit-M wind tunnel, his team registered a total positive force of 100 N acting on the ramjet at Mach 8, a result described in peer-reviewed publications as achieved "for the first time" under such conditions. Zvegintsev also developed pneumopulse technologies and gasdynamic devices for industrial applications, including the cleaning of boiler heating surfaces and pipeline interiors.[3][6][3]
In 2006, Alexander Shiplyuk, who would later become director of ITAM, succeeded Zvegintsev as head of the laboratory. Zvegintsev continued at the institute as a chief researcher. He was the recipient of the silver (second) medal of the Zhukovsky Prize for contributions to aeronautics. In 2019, Zvegintsev was nominated as a candidate for Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences by the ITAM academic council, with the endorsement of Academician Vasily Fomin and Corresponding Member Shiplyuk.[3][5]
Throughout his career, Zvegintsev published in international peer-reviewed journals, including Energies and the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, and regularly attended conferences abroad. He co-authored a book chapter entitled "Hypersonic Short-Duration Facilities for Aerodynamic Research at ITAM, Russia" with colleagues Maslov and Shiplyuk in 2016.[5]
Arrest and prosecution
On 7 April 2023, Zvegintsev was arrested by order of the Sovetsky District Court of Novosibirsk on charges of treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code of Russia). He was the third ITAM researcher to be arrested on such charges after Maslov and Shiplyuk in 2022. Unlike his colleagues, who had been transferred to Moscow's Lefortovo Prison, Zvegintsev was placed under house arrest, which observers attributed to his advanced age (79 at the time of arrest). According to the human rights lawyer Ivan Pavlov of Pervy Otdel, the FSB deliberately selected "easy" targets among elderly scientists. News of his arrest became public only on 15 May 2023, when his colleagues at ITAM published an open letter on the institute's website in his defence. An ITAM employee told T-invariant: "On the day Valery Ivanovich was arrested, I was not at the institute. My colleagues told me. The next day I saw that a search was conducted at his workplace. It shocked me so much that I could not work for a long time."[7][8][9]
According to a source cited by TASS, the criminal case was linked to a publication on gas dynamics in an Iranian scientific journal, the Journal of Applied and Computational Mechanics, which Zvegintsev had co-authored with his regular collaborator Vladislav Galkin, an associate professor at Tomsk Polytechnic University. The article described a method for designing high-speed axisymmetric air intakes through flow reversal in isentropic nozzles. A former colleague of Galkin told Radio Svoboda that the method described in the article was relevant to the design of air intakes used in the Avangard, Kinzhal, Sarmat, and Zircon missile systems. The article had passed two expert reviews for possible classified content before publication, with the FSB itself checking the text twice in Galkin's case.[10][11]
In December 2023, Galkin was also arrested and charged with treason in the same case. His detention was initially announced by the court without naming the defendant; T-invariant was the first outlet to identify him.[12]
Trial and verdict
The trial was conducted by the Novosibirsk Regional Court in closed session, beginning in 2024. On 5 May 2026, the court convicted both Zvegintsev and Galkin on two counts of treason each and sentenced each to 12.5 years in a strict-regime penal colony. Both pleaded not guilty. The defence subsequently filed an appeal. Kommersant reported that the case had been initiated in connection with the Iranian journal publication, and that the open letter from ITAM colleagues in 2023 had stated that the materials of all three arrested scientists had been "repeatedly checked by the expert commission for the presence of restricted-access information, and no such information was found in them".[13][1][14]
A colleague of Zvegintsev, speaking to Radio Svoboda under a pseudonym, described his condition at sentencing: "Three years under arrest, Valery Ivanovich wasn't even allowed to go for walks all this time. He has deteriorated so much that he could not even stand to hear the verdict. He can only walk with a cane." The colleague added: "He was still teaching students and making patents in his early seventies because he lived for science. Look at the video from a 2019 youth seminar, how energetic he was. They simply killed him during interrogations. Since 2023 they locked him at home, took away his work, accused him of God knows what. That's why he looks 90 now. He has been assigned disability grade 2. How will he survive prison? He won't. This is effectively a death sentence for him."[10]
Zvegintsev's lawyer, Tatiana Orlova, also characterised the sentence as tantamount to a death sentence given his age and health. If Zvegintsev served the full term, accounting for time already served under house arrest (calculated at a reduced rate), he would be released at approximately the age of 93. T-invariant reported that while under arrest, Zvegintsev was listed as a co-inventor on a patent for an "under-barrel grenade launcher munition for destroying unmanned aerial vehicles", filed in November 2025, raising questions about whether imprisoned scientists were already being put to work on defence-related inventions.[2][15]
Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported that Zvegintsev's case was part of a pattern in which scientists at institutions under "close surveillance of Putin and security officials" were subjected to purges, quoting T-invariant editor-in-chief Olga Orlova as saying she was "convinced of the innocence of the men" and noting that neither had attempted to leave Russia despite the earlier arrests of their peers.[16]
The memorial human rights project listed Zvegintsev among the victims of political repression in Russia.[17]
See also
- Prosecution of Russian hypersonic scientists
- Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics
- Increase in treason and espionage prosecutions in Russia during the invasion of Ukraine
- Hypersonic flight
- Scramjet
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Two more Russian hypersonic scientists are convicted of treason". Reuters. 5 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "The Old to Prison, the Young to the Exit: The Final Verdict in the Hypersonic Scientists Case". T-invariant. 21 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Звегинцев Валерий Иванович (candidate profile)" (in русский). Russian Academy of Sciences Elections 2019. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "Суд в Новосибирске приговорил двух ученых-физиков к 12,5 годам колонии по обвинению в госизмене" [A Novosibirsk court sentenced two physicists to 12.5 years in colony on treason charges]. Meduza (in русский). 5 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Who are the three Russian scientists accused of state treason?". Reuters. 18 May 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ Frolov, S. M.; Zvegintsev, V. I.; Ivanov, V. S.; Aksenov, V. S.; Shamshin, I. O.; Vnuchkov, D. A.; Nalivaichenko, D. G.; Berlin, A. A.; Fomin, V. M. (2017). "Wind tunnel tests of a hydrogen-fueled detonation ramjet model at approach air stream Mach numbers from 4 to 8". International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. 42 (40): 25401–25413. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2017.08.062.
- ↑ "Кто такой ученый-физик из Сибири Звегинцев, подозреваемый в госизмене" [Who is the Siberian physicist Zvegintsev, suspected of treason]. FederalPress (in русский). 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "Кто такой Валерий Звегинцев, подозреваемый в госизмене?" [Who is Valery Zvegintsev, suspected of treason?]. Argumenty i Fakty (in русский). 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "Hypersound silence. How scientists become the prey of the FSB". T-invariant. 20 May 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 ""Быть ученым в России сегодня просто опасно"" ["Being a scientist in Russia today is simply dangerous"]. Radio Svoboda (in русский). 8 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "Суд в Новосибирске приговорил двух ученых-физиков к 12,5 годам по делу о госизмене" [Court in Novosibirsk sentenced two physicists to 12.5 years in treason case]. Forbes Russia (in русский). 5 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "They climbed into the nozzle itself. The FSB took on the co-authors of Novosibirsk scientists accused of treason". T-invariant. December 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "Госизмена с гиперзвуком" [Treason at hypersonic speed]. Kommersant (in русский). 5 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "В Новосибирске двух ученых осудили за госизмену" [In Novosibirsk, two scientists convicted of treason]. Interfax (in русский). 5 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "Two Russian physicists working in hypersonic research jailed for 12.5 years on treason charges in Novosibirsk". The Insider. 5 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "12,5 лет колонии: в РФ ученых-физиков Валерия Звегинцева и Владислава Галкина репрессировали по статье о госизмене" [12.5 years in colony: Russian physicists Zvegintsev and Galkin repressed under treason article]. RFI (in русский). 5 May 2026. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
- ↑ "Звегинцев Валерий Иванович" (in русский). Memorial. 8 October 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2026.
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