Without citing any evidence, the daily Izvestia claimed Thursday that the new torpedo was a modification of the older Shkval underwater missile, a device that glides on huge air bubbles it creates as goes along.
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MOSCOW _ A closed Russian court on Wednesday declared American Edmond Pope guilty of espionage for his attempts to buy top secret underwater missile technology and sentenced him to a maximum 20 years of hard labor.
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Pope, a 54-year-old former U . S . Navy intelligence officer turned businessman, was arrested April 3 by Russian security agents, who charge that he spent around $ 30, 000 to acquire top secret underwater missile technology.
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Russian officials said he was arrested after trying to buy plans to a secret submarine weapon, described as an underwater missile that glides on huge air bubbles it creates and can reach speeds of up to 225 miles per hour.
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Anonymous FSB sources quoted in the Russian press have said that Pope arrived in Moscow in April seeking information allegedly worth millions of dollars about the Russian Navy's Squall underwater missile, which was deployed aboard the downed Kursk nuclear submarine.
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Putin told reporters traveling with him to the Urals mining town Magnitogorsk that he would heed the recommendation made the previous day by the Kremlin clemency commission to release Pope, who was found guilty of trying to buy top secret underwater missile technology.
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"The U . S . citizen focused his attention on a high-speed underwater missile, " said the agency, known by the initials FSB . Such missiles can build up a speed of about 225 mph, it said, according to the news agency reports.
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Vowing to be " tough with the Americans, " he tried to force Washington to cut U . S . catches of Pacific salmon by refusing to renew a longstanding lease for a Canadian-U . S . underwater missile testing range near here.
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Quoting anonymous Russian intelligence sources, Russian press reports say Pope, a retired U . S . Navy intelligence officer, arrived in Moscow in April seeking information allegedly worth millions of dollars about an underwater missile, which was deployed aboard the sunken Kursk nuclear submarine.
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The underwater missile designed by Logvinovich came to the spotlight in 2000, when U . S . businessman Edmond Pope was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Russian court for trying to obtain classified materials relating to its design.
