A physicist working in hypersonic aircraft research, Alexander Kuranov, became the latest such scientist to be found guilty of high treason, for activities usually considered as a normal part of a scientist’s work but considered a crime by the Kremlin.

The City Court of St. Petersburg sentenced the 76-year-old man to 7 years in a maximum-security colony and fined him 100,000 rubles ($1,100) on Thursday, April 18.