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Safronov has denied the charges of treason
An adviser to the head of the Russian space company has appeared in courtroom on rates of treason.
Roscosmos stated in a statement (in Russian) that previous journalist Ivan Safronov’s arrest was not connected to his present-day occupation there.
Russia’s FSB security services reported he was suspected of spying for a Nato place. He has denied the rates.
Beforehand he claimed on armed forces subjects for two major Russian organization dailies – Kommersant and Vedomosti.
Independently on Tuesday journalist Taisiya Bekbulatova was detained right after law enforcement raided her flat, Kommersant reported. She was remaining questioned as a witness in the scenario, it included.
Bekbulatova, the main editor of unbiased news magazine Holod Media, is claimed to be a friend of Safronov.
Nevertheless, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated of the treason allegations: “As far as we know this is not connected to his prior journalistic action in any way.”
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The FSB produced a clip demonstrating them arresting Safronov in Moscow
Safronov joined Roscosmos as details adviser to director typical Dmitry Rogozin in the middle of May perhaps.
The place agency mentioned it was encouraging investigators with their inquiries.
The former journalist faces up to 20 decades in jail if convicted.
Veil of secrecy in these types of instances
Kommersant newspaper, exactly where Ivan Safronov labored for a decade, phone calls the demand of treason versus him “absurd” and describes him as a patriot. Friends and colleagues are demanding an straightforward and open up investigation.
But that will be difficult ever to know. Specific info is notoriously challenging to get in spy cases, with trials held powering shut doorways and even defence attorneys banned from sharing essential evidence.
The Russian protection provider, the FSB, also appoints its very own experts to figure out what constitutes a point out mystery, and contesting their conclusions is nigh on unattainable.
There will be an especially powerful aim on this case, even though. Ivan Safronov is effectively known in Moscow journalist circles. A young gentleman who wrote on usually delicate, armed forces matters, he’s described by good friends as truthful, open and specialist and there is a sense of bewilderment – and concern – below at his arrest.
An FSB assertion reported Safronov was believed to have been performing for the security services of an unspecified Nato state.
“He gathered and handed to its agent categorized information and facts about army-technical co-operation, defence and protection of the Russian Federation,” it mentioned.
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Safronov’s arrest was evidently not connected to his position at the house agency
But in his court overall look, Safronov said he did not acknowledge any guilt.
He refused to give proof in the course of questioning by the FSB, doing exercises his ideal to remain silent, Tass news agency said.
In the meantime, buddies and former colleagues posted messages of assist on social media. A number of fellow journalists were being arrested outdoors FSB headquarters although demonstrating from his arrest.
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Journalists protested in help of Safronov: The indicator claims “Journalism is not a criminal offense”
What do we know about his operate as a journalist?
Safronov was remarkably acclaimed as a reporter on military and space troubles for Kommersant, ahead of moving to Vedomosti past yr.
In June 2019, courtroom proceedings have been held around the alleged disclosure by Kommersant of data constituting a condition magic formula.
The details reportedly had to do with an short article co-authored by Safronov about Russia’s deliveries of Su-35 fighter plane to Egypt. The report was later taken out from the Kommersant site.
By the time of the court scenario, Safronov experienced been sacked from the newspaper for an short article he labored on suggesting that Russian higher house speaker Valentina Matviyenko was about to go away her publish.
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Ivan Safronov senior died following falling from a fifth ground window
The full politics desk of the paper resigned in protest at the dismissal.
Safronov’s father, also named Ivan, was a well-known armed service commentator at Kommersant.
He died soon after slipping from the fifth ground of a Moscow apartment developing in 2007.
Ivan Safronov senior had been investigating claims of planned Russian arms gross sales to Syria and Iran at the time of his loss of life, Kommersant mentioned.
What is Roscosmos?
The Roscosmos Point out Company for Place Activities, to give it its whole identify, advanced into its existing kind in 2015 as a national company liable for a vast array of place flights and programmes.
Mr Rogozin, a controversial nationalist politician, took cost of the company in Could 2018.
But it has been beset with difficulties. An accident later in 2018 compelled the launch of a Soyuz rocket to the International House Station to be aborted.
Just just before this incident, the crew on the ISS experienced discovered a mysterious gap.
The adhering to yr, President Vladimir Putin’s pet house challenge, the Vostochny place centre, was tainted by scandal as major officials were being jailed for theft and corruption.
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