A Moscow district court on Thursday ordered Kuranov to be held in custody on suspicion of treason. The scientist could face up to 20 years in prison if his guilt is proven. Kuranov’s case has been dubbed "top secret" by investigators.
"The information that the detained director general of the Hypersonic Systems Research Enterprise, Alexander Kuranov, is an employee of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University is false. Alexander Kuranov was working part-time as a professor before he was dismissed in 2016," the university said, without mentioning specific reasons for Kuranov’s dismissal.
Kuranov is the director-general and chief designer at the Hypersonic Systems Research Enterprise, a company researching hypersonic technologies for the aviation and aerospace industry. He is also an expert in plasma physics. The company’s website said Kuranov was a department head, coordinator of bachelor and post-graduate students training, bachelor and master programs supervisor and lecturer at the St. Petersburg university.