By Luis Alemany
Ivan Ivanovich Safronov (1956-2007), was a Russian journalist (aquí suprimí una palabra que no va) specialized in military matters for the Kommersant newspaper in Moscow, founded in 1909 that was closed in 1917 but refounded in 1989.
Safronov, in 1979, had graduated as a Computer Engineer from the Engineering Faculty of the Dzerzhinsky Military Academy. He served as a military engineer in the 15th Commando near Ussuriysk, in the Russian Far East. In January 1993 he began to work in the press service of the Space Troops. In 1997, Safronov retired from active duty and was transferred to the Army Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel. In December 1997, he became a military columnist in the Kommersant newspaper .
Safronov wrote about changes in defense leadership and problems in military training as well as defense technology and failures in military testing that often went unrecognized and unreported by the military.
In December 2006, Safronov wrote about the third consecutive failed launch of the Bulaya ICBM. The military did not acknowledge the failure and accused him of revealing classified information. FSB agents – the new KGB – questioned him about the dissemination of alleged confidential data, but Safronov showed them the website where he had obtained the information.
On March 2, 2007, the body of Ivan Safronov was found dead, on the sidewalk of the building where he lived, thrown from the fifth floor, even though his apartment was on the third. In September of the same year, the competent prosecutor’s office filed the case, qualifying it as «suicide.»
But the drama of the Safronov family does not end in those already distant days of the year 2007.
His son, Ivan Safronov, also recognized as one of the most outstanding young Russian journalists, was arrested in July 2020, accused of treason. A Kremlin spokesman stated after the arrest that «as far as we know, this is in no way related to his previous journalistic activity.» Kommersant called the treason charges «absurd».
Investigators detected the presence of “state secrets” in seven analysis articles Safronov sent to Czech journalist Martin Larysh and German political analyst Dmitri Voronin. However, all of the allegedly confidential information was already available on the Internet before Safronov wrote his analyses, except for one about technical problems related to reconnaissance satellite tests. This was made public less than two months later as a result of a decision made by the Moscow Arbitration Court.
Safronov ‘s analysis of the transfer of T-72 tanks and BRDM-2 armored vehicles to Serbia was based on information published by the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti and reports published by the Russian Defense Ministry itself.
Now, in the first days of September 2022, Ivan Safronov has been sentenced to 22 years in prison in one of Vladimir Putin’s worst dungeons.
“The ruthless Russian judiciary tries to crush a talented journalist, but in vain because others will replace him. The totally incoherent accusation brought against Ivan Safronov shows that he is being punished for doing his job. We condemn this draconian, unjust and vindictive sentence handed down by a regime allergic to journalists, a sentence handed down behind closed doors while its lawyers were prevented from defending it [i], » said Jeanne Cavelier, Area Manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at Reporters Without Borders.
Luis Alemany, September 21, 2022
[i] https://www.rsf-en.org/russia-russian-journalist-ivan-safronov-sentenced-to-22-years-in-prison-for-an-incoherent-and-absurd-accusation/