ST. PETERSBURG, June 20 - RAPSI. The St. Petersburg City Court has sentenced on Wednesday two professors of the Baltic State Technical University to 12 years in a maximum security prison for providing secret information about the new ballistic missile to Chinese intelligence services.

Professors Afanasyev and Bobyshev went to China several times where they met a Chinese professor and his interpreter, who were both agents of the Chinese intelligence services. They later provided them with secret information for $7,000, the judge said.

The convicts provided Chinese spies with secret information about the Bulava-30 submarine-launched ballistic missile and its features. The information has jeopardized Russian submarines, as it can now be used to detect them.

The judge also noted that the defendants pleaded not guilty and claimed that they had never performed secret research. They said they visited China to read lectures and to hold practical training.

The Bulava (SS-NX-30) SLBM, developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (since 1998), carries up to 10 MIRV warheads and has a range of over 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles). The three-stage ballistic missile is designed for deployment on Borey-class nuclear submarines.