One of the developers of the Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber fled to the United States.

A Russian military engineer involved in the development and production of Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers fled to the United States and applied for political asylum. The latter worked at the Kazan Aviation Plant from 2018 to 2021 and could well have access to data on the modernized Russian Tu-160M2 supersonic missile-carrying bomber. In exchange for political asylum, a Russian military engineer offered to reveal some classified information. Information on this subject is provided by Yahoo News.

“According to an unclassified report from the Customs and Border Protection, a Russian engineer drove up to the US southwestern border in late December, asking for asylum and offering to reveal some of Russia’s best-guarded military secrets. The man and his family arrived in an armored SUV and asked for permission to enter the United States, as they feared persecution for participating in anti-government protests. He then told Foreign Intelligence Service officials that he had information the US government was looking for. He described the type of aircraft as "bomber" and said it was "called the Tu-160 White Swan, the largest military aircraft in the world.", according to Yahoo News.

Due to the lack of official comments from the Russian side, it is still not known exactly what information the escaped engineer could have access to, however, this could pose a serious threat to Russian national interests.

The publication notes that due to the privacy policy, the name of the Russian is not given, however, the latter could well have access to important data, which, by the way, is also confirmed by an American official who is allegedly familiar with this situation.