As chair of the Committee on the International Freedom of Scientists of the American Physical Society, I am writing to alert our community to the situation of a fellow physicist in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. CIFS is charged by APS with monitoring the rights of physicists and other scientists around the world.
Recently, CIFS learned that Valentin Danilov, head of the Thermo-Physics Center at Krasnoyarsk State Technical University, had been arrested and incarcerated in February and charged in April with selling state secrets to a Chinese company. According to quotes from Russia’s Federal Security Service in a Reuters news article, Danilov’s relations with this company have “allowed foreign countries to significantly cut the amount of time and money spent on the development and creation of spacecraft.”
Danilov was, in fact, the signatory for a legal contract between Krasnoyarsk State Technical University and the Chinese company to create a model to predict the effect of the electromagnetic environment on satellites. Danilov has done significant research in this area, and this work was declassified by the Russian government in 1992. Researchers in the US and Russia with whom Danilov has collaborated indicate that the information provided under this contract has for years been readily available in the scientific literature, including meeting abstracts and materials published by APS. It is difficult for CIFS to understand how Dr. Danilov could be accused of disclosing “state secrets” when our Chinese colleagues have had access to the same information for almost a decade through publicly available scientific literature.
In an attempt to verify these accounts and to inform authorities of Danilov’s deteriorating health (he suffers from hypertension), both CIFS and APS President George Trilling wrote to President Vladimir Putin. CIFS also has sent inquiries to the mayor of Krasnoyarsk and the governor of Krasnoyarsk region. To date, no response has been received to any of these inquiries. Suggestions and help from the physics community for immediately resolving this urgent and troubling case are welcome. They may be sent to me at the e-mail address below; I will bring all such correspondence to the attention of the members of CIFS.
Danilov was admitted to the hospital in mid-June after suffering a heart attack. It is reported that he is chained to the bed. This information has been verified by Danilov’s attorney and his wife.
