Russian Professors Jailed For Selling Secrets To China

A "Bulava" missile

A court in the Russian city of St. Petersburg has sentenced two professors from Russia's leading military university to jail terms after they were convicted of providing secret data on Russia’s intercontinental “Bulava” missile to China.

Yevgeny Afanasyev was sentenced to 12 1/2 years and Svyatoslav Bobyshev received 12 years in jail.

Both had pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said the classified missile data was handed over to China in 2009, when the men were professors at the Baltic Technical University for Military Technologies in St. Petersburg.

It's at least the fourth case this year of Russians being convicted and sentenced to prison for providing secret information to foreign countries, including the United States.

Based on reporting by Interfax and RIA-Novosti