Global Security Newswire

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visits the Plesetsk cosmodrome in 2008. A former engineer at the facility on Friday received a 13-year prison sentence for providing the CIA with sensitive ICBM information (AP Photo/Presidential Press Service).

A Russian military officer on Friday received a 13-year prison sentence for delivering classified ICBM data to the CIA, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Feb. 6).

Lt. Col. Vladimir Nesterets acknowledged accepting money for delivering the data regarding Russia's development of new ICBMs, according to the Federal Security Service. The agency, the successor to the KGB, did not offer additional information about Nesterets' actions.

Nesterets had served as a high-level engineer at the Plesetsk launch facility, which is used in trying out developmental missile types (Romain Goguelin, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, Feb. 10).

"This is the Russian strategic missile forces' main launch site," defense specialist Pavel Felgenhauer told the London Telegraph. "All current mobile systems and their warheads are launched from and tested at Plesetsk."

Russia has been working to field new nuclear-capable missiles and warheads, with an eye toward countering missile defenses being deployed in the United States and Europe (see GSN, Feb. 6). The Obama administration's plans for a European missile shield have been a growing issue of contention between Moscow and Washington.

Nesterets' job had involved the Topol-M missile that was fielded prior to 2000, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported. It said his compensation for providing the information to the CIA was $1,000.

"The CIA will take anything about the Russian military -- even if the information turns out to be rather old," Felgenhauer said (London Telegraph, Feb. 10).