Thread by @AlexGabuev

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There is yet another high profile 🇨🇳🇷🇺 spy case. Alexander Lukanin (64), a researcher from Tomsk, has been arrested by the FSB for transferring sensitive technology to China, according to @MBKhMedia. Here is some context 👇 1/ mbk-news.appspot.com/news/v-tomske-…

2/ Alexander Lukanin was a researcher at Tomsk polytechnic university, and later on he worked at Institute of physics of strength & material science, a highly reputed research institution in Siberia. His research was focused on high-voltage power supply that has military use

3/ After retirement Lukanin was invited to work at Shenyang in North-East China. According to @MBKhMedia, his employer was Shenyang University (沈阳大学), but the city hosts some PLA-tied research institutions. Good background in this @ASPI_ICPC report aspi.org.au/report/china-d…

4/ Lukanin's arrest is the second high-profile 🇨🇳🇷🇺 spy scandal in 2020, following arrest of Valery Mitko in June. Some background on Mitko's case 👇

https://twitter.com/AlexGabuev/status/1272458566167924736

5/ It is important to note that the case was reported not by the FSB, but by a local Telegram-channel and then confirmed by Lukanin's friends to @MBKhMedia. An informal agreement between Moscow and Beijing not to go public about spy cases still seems to be working.

6/ It's clear that Russia and China do spy on each other, but back at the time of Putin and Hu Jintao (around 2005) both countries have decided to go silent on this issue in order to not undermine an emerging nexus between them.

7/ At the same time it's clear that MSS runs a network of spotting Russian retired scientists who might possess access to technologies of interest to the PLA, and lure them to China with lavish salaries etc. The FSB is dully continuing to interrupt these practices.