The sentence against Anatoly Babkin is the latest in what liberal politicians see as a concerted campaign by the Federal Security Services (FSB) to target environmentalists and scientists with charges of espionage.

FSB officials have charged that in 1999 and 2000, Babkin handed over secret documents containing technical data on the high-speed underwater Shkval missile to Edmund Pope, an American businessman convicted of espionage in December 2000. Pope was sentenced to 20 years in prison but was pardoned by Russian President Vladimir Putin the same month.

Babkin has steadfastly denied the charged.

"I am not guilty of treason. This is an absolutely political case, and I will definitely appeal to be acquitted," Babkin said in a 20 February article from the daily Kommersant.

The General Prosecutor's Office expressed disappointment over the sentence, which representative Ilya Yerokhin called "too soft for treason," Kommersant reported. According to the Russian Criminal Code, a conviction on charges of treason carries with it a sentence of 12 to 20 years in prison.

"The soft sentence was probably given in light of Babkin's merits: He has a Ph.D. in technical sciences and is old," Yerokhin added.

Babkin has insisted that he did not hand over any materials to Pope, saying that he was sending reports to the University of Pennsylvania according to a $28,000 agreement on scientific exchanges signed between the American university and Moscow State Technical University in 1996.

FSB sources charged that Babkin, as head of the project, was supposed to hand over four reports but gave five instead. They further charged that Pope and Babkin were detained at a hotel in April 2000 with the fifth report in their custody, Kommersant reported.

Pavel Astakhov, Babkin's lawyer, insisted that the scientist could not have handed over the documents about the Shkval missile because he had not worked on topics linked to projects involving high-speed underwater missiles since 1969.

The Shkval missile is described as an "exceptionally high-speed unguided underwater missile which has no equivalent in the West" and "travels at a velocity that would give a targeted vessel very little chance to perform evasive action," by the Fas.org Military Analyst Network web site.

"The name ["Shkval"] appeared in the investigation materials only because investigators insisted on including it and [Babkin] was bound to agree because he could not resist such a pressure while he was in a pre-stroke condition," Astakhov was quoted as saying by the independent Rosbusinessconsulting (RBC) news agency on 14 February.

The RBC report said Babkin's wife testified that Babkin's statements had been made under pressure from FSB investigators.

"The Technical University's security service and an FSB representative knew about work we were doing according to the agreement, and Americans had been visiting the university with their permission," Babkin said in a 21 February interview with Kommersant.

"Besides, there were two FSB representatives who came to my department in 1998. I told them the details of the work. When I asked them if I should quit it, they told me to continue. I informed the university's security services about this conversation," he charged.

Liberal Russian politicians called the case another example of spy mania.

"Such cases as that of Grigory Pasko, Alexander Nikitin, and Igor Sutyagin are parts of this campaign. Spy mania does not only takes Russia back to times of totalitarianism, but, in this case, contributes to brain drain," Sergei Mitrokhin, a State Duma lawmaker and the Yabloko party deputy head, said on 20 February, the Regions.ru information web site reported.

"The threat of finding themselves as victims of a witch hunt could be the last straw for scientists who have already been left in a tenuous position by the state," Mitrokhin added.

See also:

the origianl at

www.tol.cz

Prof.Babkin Case

Transitions Online, February 24, 2003