Cross-Registry Audit of Western Scientific Databases (OpenAlex / Crossref / ORCID / IEEE / Springer Nature / Elsevier + DFG & EU Horizon Grants) × Active Designers of Sanctioned Russian Defense & Nuclear R&D Institutes (2024–2026)

How 21 sanctioned Russian nuclear-warhead, hypersonic, missile, and radar research institutes (RFNC-VNIIEF Sarov, RFNC-VNIITF Snezhinsk, VNIIA Dukhov, IAP RAS, TsAGI, CIAM, VIAM, GosNIIAS, CSRI Elektropribor, NPP Istok, Concern Sozvezdie) published 3,304 peer-reviewed papers through Western publishers in 2024–2026 while maintaining dual affiliations in France (CNRS / ESPCI Paris / ONERA), active German DFG (No. 471089264), French ANR (No. 725-23-42), and EU Horizon 2020 funding citations, joint projects with Chinese military centers (CARDC, NWPU, BIT, NJUST), and access to Western CAD suites (ANSYS Fluent, CST Studio Suite, COMSOL, SolidWorks).

1. Architecture of the Blind Spot: Why Russian Nuclear Warhead and Hypersonic Designers Remain Active in Western Scientific Registries in 2024–2026

Following blocking sanctions imposed by the United States (OFAC SDN / BIS Entity List), the European Union (Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014), the United Kingdom, and Ukraine against core research institutes (NIIs) and design bureaus (KBs) of the Russian military-industrial complex and Rosatom's nuclear weapons complex, formal intergovernmental research cooperation was declared suspended.

However, direct programmatic cross-referencing of global bibliographic and grant registries — OpenAlex (api.openalex.org), Crossref (api.crossref.org), ORCID (orcid.org), the European Commission's CORDIS database, and full-text *Author Contributions*, *Acknowledgements*, and *Funding* declarations — for 1 January 2024 – 6 November 2026 establishes a starkly different reality:

• 21 sanctioned Russian defense, nuclear-warhead, and aerospace R&D institutes indexed 3,304 peer-reviewed scientific papers in Western databases during 2024–2026 (including 1,858 papers authored by compact engineering teams of <=15 authors across the 20 specialized defense industry NIIs, excluding the broader academic IAP RAS).
• Breakdown by Western academic publishing group (2024–2026, all 21 NIIs / 20 industry NIIs excluding IAP RAS):
• Springer Nature Group (Pleiades Publishing, Springer Science+Business Media, Nature Portfolio, Germany / UK / USA): 1,150 papers (768 across the 20 specialized defense and Rosatom NIIs);
• Elsevier BV (RELX Group, Netherlands / UK): 212 papers (108 across the 20 industry NIIs);
• American Institute of Physics (AIP Publishing, USA): 108 papers (39 across the 20 industry NIIs);
• MDPI AG (Basel, Switzerland): 67 papers (27 across the 20 industry NIIs);
• American Physical Society (APS, USA): 63 papers (47 across the 20 industry NIIs — predominantly Rosatom's nuclear warhead centers in Sarov, Snezhinsk, and Moscow);
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, USA): 62 papers (13 across the 20 industry NIIs + 49 from OFAC SDN-designated IAP RAS);
• IOP Publishing (UK), Optica Publishing Group (USA), and Copernicus GmbH (Germany): 92 papers.

2. Sober Critical Engineer Filter: Eliminating Automated OpenAlex Disambiguation False Positives

Automated affiliation parsers in global scientometric aggregators (OpenAlex, Scopus, Semantic Scholar) suffer from systematic entity conflation (affiliation disambiguation errors). Without strict verification of the raw affiliation string (raw_affiliation_string) and research domain, naive automated queries produce severe false positives. Our audit identified and programmatically purged three major database artifacts:

• False Conflation of a Ukrainian Military Aviation Institute with Russian GosNIIAS (OpenAlex ID: I2800111664): OpenAlex erroneously maps English-language papers from Ukraine's State Research Institute of Aviation (Kyiv, Ukraine) concerning Ukrainian Armed Forces aircraft maintenance and logistics onto the profile of Russia's State Research Institute of Aviation Systems (GosNIIAS, Moscow, Victorenko St. 7). Filter rule applied: enforce a strict geographic lock requiring Moscow or Victorenko in raw_affiliation_string and reject any record mentioning Kyiv or Ukraine.
• Sugar-Beet Agronomy Mapped to Electronic Warfare Maker JSC Concern Sozvezdie (OpenAlex ID: I4210103763): due to regional proximity in Voronezh Region, OpenAlex merges papers from the Mazlumov All-Russian Research Institute of Sugar Beet and Sugar (VNIISS, Ramon) into the profile of Russia's primary tactical EW manufacturer JSC Concern Sozvezdie (Voronezh). Filter rule applied: purge all agricultural, botanical, and biomedical topics, retaining strictly verified Sozvezdie RF/EW/PLL engineering papers.
• Agricultural Seed Machinery Mapped to JSC Concern Granit-Electron (OpenAlex ID: I4210103749): civilian agro-engineering papers were similarly excluded.
• Exclusion of Mega-Collaborations (>15 authors): high-energy physics consortia (CERN/LHC) and astrophysics surveys with hundreds of legacy signatories were excluded so that only direct laboratory R&D teams (<=15 authors) are counted.

3. Nine Verified Hard-Defense and Nuclear-Warhead Dossiers (2024–2026)

#### Case 1 (SCITECH-2026-001): Rosatom Nuclear Warhead Center FSUE RFNC-VNIITF named after Academician E.I. Zababakhin (Snezhinsk, INN 7423000572) — Uranium Phase Diagrams in APS, TATB Detonation in Springer, and Simulations in US LAMMPS & German OVITO

• Sanctions Status: Primary Ural thermonuclear warhead design bureau of Rosatom (US OFAC SDN, BIS Entity List, EU, UK, and Ukraine NSDC sanctions).
• Verified 2024–2025 Publications:
• DOI: 10.1103/8w5w-f3kd (*Physical Review B*, American Physical Society [USA], 2025-06-24): *"Machine learning enhanced quantum molecular dynamics assessment of the phase diagram of uranium"* — authored by P. V. Chirkov (ORCID: 0000-0001-6504-6569), G. S. Eltsov (0009-0003-6317-9095), R. M. Kichigin (0009-0004-6284-154X), A. V. Karavaev (0000-0002-2661-9616), and V. V. Dremov (0000-0002-3130-3448, v.v.dryomov@vniitf.ru).
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-79228-y (*Scientific Reports*, Springer Nature, 2024-11-15): *"Atomistic simulation of primary microstructure formation in metals during crystallization from the melt"* — same RFNC-VNIITF team co-authoring with Moscow's JSC RPA CNIITMASH (INN 7723564851). The full text explicitly acknowledges Grant No. MT-96 under the EOTP Rosatom research program and cites molecular dynamics simulations run in US Sandia National Laboratories code LAMMPS and visualized in German software OVITO (OVITO GmbH, Darmstadt, Germany).
• DOI: 10.1016/j.commatsci.2024.113057 (*Computational Materials Science*, Elsevier BV, 2024-04-29): *"Zirconium phase diagram from ab initio molecular dynamics"*.
• DOI: 10.1134/s001050822570073x (*Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves*, Pleiades Publishing / Springer Nature, 2025-12-01): *"Development and Propagation of Detonation in TATB Explosive"* — modeling and experimental detonation propagation in TATB (triaminotrinitrobenzene), the core insensitive high explosive used in nuclear warhead implosion primaries.

#### Case 2 (SCITECH-2026-002): Primary Nuclear Weapons Center FSUE RFNC-VNIIEF (Sarov, INN 5254001230) — Cylindrical TATB Implosion Charges with Internal Steel Shells in Springer & High-Power K DPAL Military Lasers in IEEE Xplore

• Sanctions Status: Russia's premier nuclear weapons design center in the closed city of Sarov (US OFAC SDN, BIS, EU, UK, Ukraine).
• Verified 2024–2025 Publications:
• DOI: 10.1134/s0010508224050101 (*Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves*, Pleiades / Springer Nature, 2024-10-01): *"Detonation Initiation and Propagation in a Cylindrical TATB Charge"* (N. A. Volodina, A. V. Erastov, P. V. Zabusov, M. N. Kiryukhina, K. N. Panov, V. B. Titova, M. O. Shirshova, VNIIEF, 607190, Sarov) — flash X-ray radiography of detonation wave cumulation in cylindrical plastic-bonded TATB charges containing an internal steel shell.
• DOI: 10.1134/s0010508225010113 (*Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves*, Pleiades / Springer Nature, 2025-02-01): *"Method for Studying the Accelerating Effect of Explosion Products at Large Expansion Ratios"*.
• DOI: 10.1109/iclo59702.2024.10624528 & DOI: 10.1109/iclo59702.2024.10623987 (*2024 International Conference Laser Optics ICLO*, IEEE Xplore [USA], 2024-07-01): modeling of continuous-wave potassium diode-pumped alkali lasers (K DPAL) and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) suppression in narrow-band high-power fiber laser systems (A. V. Samsonov, V. M. Yamshchikov, G. N. Kachalin, K. G. Aksenov, S. M. Kulikov).

#### Case 3 (SCITECH-2026-003): Nuclear Warhead Fuzing Institute FSUE VNIIA named after N.L. Dukhov (Moscow, INN 7707074137) — Dual Affiliations with CNRS / ESPCI Paris / Sorbonne University, Grants from ANR France & Airbus, Co-Authorship with FBH Berlin & XPANCEO Dubai

• Sanctions Status: Rosatom's lead design bureau and serial manufacturer of non-nuclear warhead fuzing systems and pulsed neutron generators (Moscow, Sushchevskaya St. 22, US OFAC SDN, BIS, EU, UK, Ukraine).
• Verified 2024–2026 Publications & Western Links:
• DOI: 10.1016/j.chaos.2025.116074 (*Chaos, Solitons & Fractals*, Elsevier BV, 2025-02-06): *"All-Josephson junction logic cells and bio-inspired neuron based on 0 − 0 − π junction inductorless blocks"* — VNIIA Dukhov researchers A. A. Maksimovskaya (ORCID: 0009-0002-4197-2263) and V. I. Ruzhickiy (0000-0002-3411-7050) co-authoring with Dmitry S. Yakovlev (0000-0002-6894-2139, ESPCI Paris / CNRS / Sorbonne University, France). Official Crossref funder metadata explicitly records funding from:
• Airbus (Crossref Funder ID: 10.13039/501100003204);
• Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France) (Award: ANR 725-23-42);
• Nanjing University of Science and Technology (Award: K2-2022-029, one of China's "Seven Sons of National Defense");
• Russian Science Foundation (Award: 24-19-00187).
• DOI: 10.1038/s43246-026-01095-z (*Communications Materials*, Springer Nature, 2026-02-16) & DOI: 10.1038/s43246-025-00759-6 (*Communications Materials*, 2025-03-04): VNIIA Dukhov researchers Vasily S. Stolyarov (ORCID: 0000-0002-5317-0818, listing simultaneous dual affiliation at Dukhov Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Moscow and LPEM UMR-8213, ESPCI Paris, CNRS, Sorbonne University, France) and Andrey G. Shishkin (0000-0002-1517-4877) co-publish with French CNRS physicists (Dimitri Roditchev, C. Feuillet-Palma, G. C. Menard, N. Bergeal) and Beijing Institute of Technology (China), using a German attocube attoDRY1000/SU (9 T) cryostat and US Bruker Multimode V8 AFM.
• DOI: 10.1016/j.measurement.2025.117479 (*Measurement*, Elsevier BV, 2025-04-06): VNIIA Dukhov researchers E. D. Chubchev (0000-0002-0860-5317) and A. V. Dorofeenko (0000-0003-1796-6007) co-authoring with Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut fuer Hoechstfrequenztechnik, Berlin, Germany (I. A. Nechepurenko, 0000-0001-9396-1609).
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matdes.2025.114014 (*Materials & Design*, Elsevier BV, 2025-05-06): *"Machine learning assisted design of reactor steels with high long-term strength and toughness"* — VNIIA Dukhov researcher Ivan A. Kruglov (ORCID: 0000-0003-1786-9282) lists dual affiliation at Dukhov Research Institute of Automatics (VNIIA), Moscow and Emerging Research Technology Center, XPANCEO, Dubai, UAE.
• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.133.186903 (*Physical Review Letters*, APS, 2024-10-29): VNIIA Dukhov authors (E. S. Andrianov, A. V. Zasedatelev) co-authoring with the University of Vienna (Austria) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / Los Alamos CINT (USA), citing EU Horizon 2020 MSCA-IF-2020 Grant 101030987 (LOREN, EUR 186,167.04).

#### Case 4 (SCITECH-2026-004): OFAC SDN-Sanctioned IAP RAS (Nizhny Novgorod, INN 5260003387) — Direct Co-Funding by German DFG Grant No. 471089264 in March 2026 & Microwave Cavity Simulation in CST Studio Suite

• Sanctions Status: The Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IAP RAS) is designated under US OFAC SDN, US BIS Entity List, EU, and Ukrainian sanctions as Russia's lead developer of high-power gyrotrons, radar electronics, and submarine hydroacoustic arrays.
• Verified Case from 20 March 2026 (DOI: 10.5194/mr-7-21-2026):
• Published in *Magnetic Resonance* (Copernicus GmbH, Goettingen, Germany): *"Bimodal Q-band probehead with improved signal-to-noise ratio in pulse electron paramagnetic resonance"*.
• Co-authored by Alexey E. Fedotov (ORCID: 0000-0001-8873-804X, Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia) and Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany) led by Prof. Thomas F. Prisner (ORCID: 0000-0003-2850-9573).
• In the *Author contributions* section of the full text, the authors explicitly state: "AF [Alexey Fedotov, IAP RAS] developed the model and performed the simulations" — the 34 GHz (Q-band) bimodal microwave cavity was modeled in CST Studio Suite (Dassault Systemes), and S-parameter measurements were performed on a German Rohde & Schwarz ZVA-40 vector network analyzer.
• In the *Financial support* section, the paper explicitly credits joint funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, grant no. 471089264) and the Russian state defense/science task of IAP RAS (project no. FFUF-2024-0027).
• Simultaneously, IAP RAS Director G.G. Denisov and Deputy Director M.Yu. Glyavin (0000-0002-7896-9212) published 170-GHz / 1-MW gyrotron and extreme-power GaAs switch papers in IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices (DOI: 10.1109/ted.2024.3457568) and IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology (DOI: 10.1109/tthz.2024.3390550).

#### Case 5 (SCITECH-2026-005): TsAGI (Zhukovsky, INN 5040177331) — Dual Affiliation with France's ONERA, Joint Grant with PLA Military Aerodynamics Center CARDC, and Use of ANSYS Fluent, COMSOL & SolidWorks

• DOI: 10.1016/j.proci.2024.105238 (*Proceedings of the Combustion Institute*, Elsevier BV, 2024): TsAGI supersonic/scramjet combustion theorist Vladimir A. Sabelnikov (ORCID: 0000-0002-0979-2994) publishes with simultaneous dual affiliation at France's state aerospace defense laboratory ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab (Palaiseau, France) and TsAGI (Zhukovsky, Moscow Region, Russia), co-funded by ONERA, the Swedish Research Council (2023-04407), and Minobrnauki RF (075-11-2020-023).
• DOI: 10.1016/j.measurement.2024.116100 (2024-10-30) & DOI: 10.1016/j.apacoust.2026.111304 (2026-03-11, Elsevier BV): TsAGI Aeroacoustics Division Head V.F. Kopiev (0009-0007-9915-6089) and I.V. Belyaev (0000-0002-9758-0456) co-publish swept-wing wind-tunnel phased-array localization and leading-edge serration studies with the PLA's China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center (CARDC, Mianyang) and Harbin Institute of Technology under joint grant RSF No. 23-41-00023 × NSFC No. 12261131502.
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-52673-5 (*Scientific Reports*, Springer Nature, 2024-01-27): TsAGI Chief Scientific Officer S.L. Chernyshev (0000-0001-6368-8090) explicitly documents airfoil CFD modeling executed in ANSYS Fluent (USA), COMSOL Multiphysics (Sweden), and SolidWorks (USA/France).

#### Case 6 (SCITECH-2026-006): Jet & Missile Engine Institute CIAM named after P.I. Baranov (Moscow, INN 7722497881) — Co-Authorship with Queen Mary University of London & Brunel University Citing EU Horizon 2020 and Turbomachinery CFD with China's NWPU

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsv.2024.118786 (*Journal of Sound and Vibration*, Elsevier BV, 2024-10-28): *"Acoustic flow resonances in installed rectangular jets"* — CIAM Moscow researchers (V. A. Shorstov, V. Makarov 0000-0002-9265-4663, A. K. Mironov 0000-0001-6684-0705) co-author with Queen Mary University of London (S. A. Karabasov) and Brunel University London (V. Gryazev) on rectangular exhaust nozzles, citing European Union Horizon 2020 Framework Programme funding.
• DOI: 10.1016/j.compfluid.2024.106271 (*Computers & Fluids*, Elsevier BV, 2024-04-16) & DOI: 10.1134/s096554252470132x (Pleiades / Springer, 2024-10-01): CIAM Turbine Sector Head Mikhail Ivanov (0000-0001-7503-2435) co-publishes shock-capturing turbomachinery CFD methods with US-sanctioned Chinese military aviation university Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU, Xi'an).

#### Cases 7–9 (SCITECH-2026-007 .. 009): Rhenium-Ruthenium Turbine Superalloys at VIAM (INN 7701024933), Combat UAV Swarm Control at GosNIIAS (INN 7714482225), GNSS-Denied Gravimetric Navigation at CSRI Elektropribor (INN 7813438763) & Ka-Band GaAs Radar MMICs at NPP Istok (INN 5050108496)

• Turbine Blade Superalloys & Naval Reactor Steels (VIAM + CRISM Prometey): DOI: 10.1134/s0031918x24602592 (Pleiades / Springer, 2025-01-01) details creep fracture testing of 6th-generation rhenium-ruthenium single-crystal Ni-based superalloys at 1100–1200 °C, while DOI: 10.3390/met14010099 (MDPI AG [Switzerland], 2024-01-14) models high-dose (30 dpa) neutron irradiation embrittlement of naval nuclear reactor steels (CRISM Prometey, INN 7815021340).
• Combat UAV Swarms & GNSS-Denied Navigation (GosNIIAS + CSRI Elektropribor + VNIIFTRI): DOI: 10.1134/s106423072570039x (Pleiades / Springer, 2025-06-01) presents GosNIIAS algorithms for coordinated combat UAV and manned aircraft group operations under active air-defense counteraction; DOI: 10.1134/s2075108725700178 (2025-06-01) and DOI: 10.1134/s2075108724700287 (2024-06-01) detail CSRI Elektropribor airborne gravimetric navigation using the Chekan-AM gravimeter and deep-water AUV acoustic positioning (co-authored with occupied Sevastopol State University, indexed by Springer/Pleiades under the Russian Federation).
• AESA Radar MMICs & Tactical EW Direction Finders (NPP Istok + Concern Sozvezdie): DOI: 10.1109/apede69319.2026.11734867 (IEEE Xplore, 2026-09-01) and DOI: 10.1109/reepe60449.2024.10479703 (IEEE Xplore, 2024-02-29) publish multilayer microwave IC transitions and fast-hopping PLL frequency synthesizers designed by JSC NPP Istok (Fryazino) and JSC Concern Sozvezdie (Voronezh).

4. Machine-Readable Evidence Feed and Interactive Registry

All 9 verified hard-defense dossiers, 36 primary DOIs linked to designer ORCIDs, Russian tax identifiers (INN/OGRN), Western grant numbers (DFG, ANR, Airbus, ONERA, Horizon 2020, RSF × NSFC), and Western CAD/instrumentation footprints are integrated into the VPK Components & Technical Specifications Registry (/en/components#western-scitech-vpk) and exported via the open JSON feed /feeds/vpk-western-scitech-2024-2026.json.