Sutyagin is a specialist in the field of the US naval strategy and before his arrest often collaborated with foreign researchers. Moreover, he read lectures at the Russian naval training centre in Obninsk, Kaluga Region. Following Sutyagin's arrest, FSS staff searched the Moscow flat of Joshua Handler, an American PhD student from Princeton University, whom Sutyagin assisted to write a thesis about strategic nuclear weapons.

Russia's Federal Security Service FSS believes that Sutyagin might have passed Handler secret information. Lawyers insist that Sutyagin used only open sources in his research. A well-known Russian scientist, Academician Yevgeniy Velikhov, spoke in his defence. He appealed to the authorities to alter the measure of restraint. However, his plead was dismissed. 

Today's court session will be held behind closed doors. If the court considers Sutyagin's guilt established, he will face up to 20 years of imprisonment.

Later on the same day, in its 0430 gmt bulletin, NTV added that Sutyagin is the head of the section of military and technical cooperation of the Institute of USA and Canada. The institute's authorities insist that Sutyagin had no access to any secret documents. However, the FSS directorate for Kaluga Region considered his work a high treason, arrested the academic and confiscated his two computers.