(Newswire.net— May 15, 2019) — A Russian man identified as Oleg Tischenko finds himself in a heap of trouble after he purchased the manual of a US Air Force Jet in order to build a realistic simulator, Russia Today reports.
He was arrested in Georgia and extradited to the US on charges of espionage, after he purchased an instruction manual on e-bay for a Lockheed Martin F-16A/B military jet.
Tischenko, who worked as a developer for Eagle Dynamics, the creator of realistic military aircraft simulator DCS World 2.5, insisted he needed manuals for clearer insight on US’s warbird as he wanted to create an ultra-realistic flight simulator game.
The Russian simmer asked members of the Digital Combat Simulator (DCS) game forum to find him F-16 and F-35s manuals. A community member from Texas eventually agreed to sell the docs to the Moscow based gamer Tischenko in 2011. The Russian gamer was actually charged in 2016 but arrested this year when he went to Gerogia, a Russian neighbor country which signed an extradition agreement with the US.
Tischenko has drawn attention of the US Intelligence after he asked Lockheed-Martin, the company that produces F-16 and F-35, for manuals. However, there is a strict policy which forbids shipping warplane manuals abroad.
The flight-sim community member from Texas who sold Tischenko the F-16 manual said he didn’t find any classified information in the manual and he was assured the data was obsolete.
The Russian embassy in Washington says Tishchenko is a victim of a political game as he was deliberately framed by the US authorities. “There are signs of provocation by the American special services,” the embassy said.
The Russian embassy pointed out that it is not clear how the US aircraft manuals that are on free market on e-bay can potentially harm the US security. Also, there is a record of selling different US warbird manuals online to buyers from Taiwan, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and Cyprus but the US Intelligence focuses on a Russian buyer.
“We need it in our work,” Tishchenko told an agent in charge, according to the affidavit. The Russian also asked for manuals for the F-16C, F-22, F-35 and A-10 related to avionics and maintenance.
Allegedly, Tischenko prommised that the documentation “would not be provided to any third persons,” and “even not shown to anyone in our company [Eagle Dynamics].”
The Russian embassy vows to provide any necessary legal assistance to protect the man’s rights. Tishchenko, is now held at a Weber County jail in Utah.