Alexander Kuranov, 73, has devoted his life to the study of hypersonic propulsion. His work involved the fundamental physics of plasma and material science, which used to be unclassified and published in the open literature.

However, the military applications of hypersonic technology have made Russia increasingly worried about leaks of information to the West and China. Russia is especially concerned about protecting knowledge that is being used to build its fleet of vehicles capable of evading missile defense systems.