An engineer from the Russian Federation, who worked on the Tu-160 bomber, asked for asylum in the United States

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A Russian engineer who worked on the Tu-160 strategic bomber has requested asylum in the US, Yahoo News reports, citing a US Customs and Border Protection report.
< br /> According to the document, at the end of December, a Russian with his family arrived in an armored SUV to the US-Mexico border and asked for permission to enter the country. He explained that he feared persecution for participating in anti-Putin protests in support of the imprisoned Alexei Navalny. Also, according to the report, the fugitive offered to reveal “some of Russia's best-kept military secrets”.

in Kazan, where from 2018 to 2021 he was engaged in the construction of the Tu-160. According to Yahoo News, the US Department of Homeland Security has been identifying the man and his former place of work for about a week and a half. On January 11, he was deemed credible and of potential interest to the United States, after which he was transferred for further interrogation to the FBI.

The Tu-160 supersonic strategic bomber-missile carrier was developed by the Tupolev design bureau in the 1970s. The first flight of the Tu-160 took place in 1981, and in 1987 the bomber entered service with the USSR Air Force. Putin, who then proposed to create a civilian supersonic aircraft on the basis of the missile carrier. Two modernized Tu-160M ​​bombers became part of long-range aviation in 2022.

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