Providing confidential information to China - Russia prosecuted a major Arctic researcher

Recently CNN.co.jp reported the following:

中国に機密情報提供か、有力な北極研究者を起訴　ロシア

2020.06.18 Thu posted at 15:15 JST

モスクワ（ＣＮＮ） 中国に機密情報を渡したとして、ロシア当局が国内の有力な北極研究者を起訴していたことが１８日までに分かった。ロシアでは、外国と接触した疑いで研究者が治安機関に摘発される例が相次いでいる。

起訴されたのは、サンクトペテルブルクにある北極科学アカデミーの会長、バレリー・ミトコ被告（７８）。弁護人のイワン・パブロフ氏によると、被告は２０１８年前半、客員教授を務めていた中国の大連海事大学で、国家機密を含む文書を中国情報機関に渡した罪に問われている。

問題の文書は水中音響学を扱ったものだという。これは水中の音の状態を調べる学問で、水中航法や通信、潜水艦の監視などに応用されることが多い。

ミトコ被告は無罪を主張している。弁護人は被告が講義に使う目的でロシアから中国に持ち込んだ情報について、すべて一般に入手できる内容だと主張。一方、ロシア連邦保安局の報道官はコメントを控えた。

ミトコ被告は国家反逆罪で起訴され、今年２月から自宅軟禁下に置かれているが、国家安全保障絡みの案件を担当するパブロフ氏のチームが世論喚起を目的に弁護を引き受けたことで、今になって詳細が明るみに出た。

中ロ関係の専門家からは、北極研究者がスパイ罪で摘発されたことについて、北極で両国の競争が始まりつつあることを浮き彫りにしたとの見方が出ている。

ロシアでは近年、国家機密を外国政府に渡したとして、研究者が起訴や有罪判決を受ける例が相次ぐ。国営タス通信によると、２０１８年には、極超音速兵器についての情報を含む報告書をベルギーの組織と共有したとして、航空宇宙分野の技術者が起訴された。

Translation

Moscow (CNN) By the 18th, it was disclosed that Russian authorities had prosecuted a leading Arctic researcher in the country for passing confidential information to China. In Russia, one after another, researchers were being investigated by security agencies for alleged contact with foreign countries.

Being indicted was Valerie Mitco, 78, president of the Arctic Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. According to defense attorney Ivan Pavlov, the defendant was accused of handing a document containing state secrets to a Chinese intelligence agency at the Dalian Maritime University in China where he was a visiting professor in the first half of 2018.

It was said that the document in question dealt with underwater acoustics. This was an academic study of underwater sound conditions, often applicable to underwater navigation, communications, and submarine surveillance.

Mitco the accused claimed innocence. The defense lawyer purported that the information the defendant brought into China from Russia was for the purpose of giving lectures which was all publicly available. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Russian Federal Security Service declined to comment.

While Mitco had been charged with national treason and put under house arrest since February this year, Pavlov's team in charge of matters related to national security had taken on defense, with the purpose of raising public opinion and now the details came to light.

Among Sino-Russian experts, there was a view point saying that the charging of Arctic researchers on espionage highlighted the beginning of competitions between the two countries in the Arctic.

In Russia in recent years, researchers had been prosecuted and convicted for passing state secrets to foreign governments. According to the state-run Tass news agency, in 2018, a aerospace technician was charged with sharing a report with a Belgian organization that containing information on hypersonic weapons.

              It is natural that every country has it own spying organization. While I do not think China has a role to play in the Arctic, yet China’s interested in the north pole is obvious. According to a Yahoo news reported on 12^th October 2019 which was covered by my blog on 12 November 2019, China had expressed its interest in the usage of the north pole. The article was entitled “Melting Ice Redraws the World Map and Starts a Power Struggle”. According to this article the melting ice is an opening to access new energy resources faster than predicted, thus prompting a struggle among the great powers in the Arctic. The political and economic map of the world could be changed because of this new Arctic passage.