A Russian court on Friday sentenced a worker at a government defence research company to eight years in prison for giving missile secrets to foreigners, said spokesmen from the country's national intelligence agency the FSB. A judge in the central Russian city Svedlovsk ruled Aleksandr Gniteyev had committed treason by giving secret details on the development and construction of Russia's new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile to an outside agency, the Interfax news agency reported, according to dpa. He was also fined the equivalent of 3,200 dollars. The report did not identify the agency or country Gniteyev had been spying for. The Bulava is a submarine-launched missile designed to succeed the Russian nuclear missile SS-27 Topol-M. Kremlin officials have called the Bulava a top defence priority for Russia, in part, because it would enable Moscow to maintain a second strike nuclear deterrent force against NATO, even if the Atlantic Alliance were to build a missile shield network capable of shooting down Russian land-based missiles.
