Safronov’s Arrest Is a New Low for Freedom of Speech in Russia

[Rogue Valley]

Safronov’s Arrest Is a New Low for Freedom of Speech in Russia

Putin has now entrusted the “journalist question” to his security services. We should be very worried.

Ivan Safronov.

7/8/20
When the Federal Security Service (FSB) requested in September 2012 that the State Duma stiffen the article on high treason in the Russian Criminal Code, everyone understood what the agency was after. Many in the Kremlin had accused the FSB of falling asleep on its watch and falling to predict the 2011 street protests. Then, with the ruling regime just recovering from that jolt, the FSB did what intelligence agencies usually do in such situations — it requested broader authority. The FSB wanted greater powers for its counterintelligence activities, a request that was right in line with the paranoid belief held by many in the Kremlin that Moscow’s mass protests could only have arisen at the bidding of foreign states. The FSB got what it wanted. The revised version of Article 275 of the Criminal Code expanded the range of the usual suspects for high treason from military personnel, scientists and researchers to include experts and journalists. The new version of the law does not require the FSB to catch someone spying for a foreign government and identify the intelligence service with which the suspect was allegedly collaborating. Now, it is enough simply to show that the person had been in communication with an “international or foreign organization” to be suspected of high treason.

Yesterday the Russian FSB arrested Ivan Safronov, a former journalist, on charges of passing information on arms sales and other defense and security matters to a NATO country. For the past few months, Safronov was working as an advisor to Russia's space agency Roscosmos. Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov said the arrest was not connected to Roscosmos, nor to Mr. Safronov's journalism jobs at Vedomosti, RBC, and Kommersant. Safronov left Kommersant in 2019 after a conflict with management over his refusal to disclose his sources for an article (arms sales) that drew the ire of the Speaker of the upper house of Russia's Parliament. In 2019 Safronov broke a story that Russia was in talks to sell advanced fighter jets to Egypt. The deal was scuppered after the US threatened to sanction Egypt if the sale went through.

 

[Ringo Stalin]

As already reported, the FSB of Russia said that they accuse the adviser to the Director General of the state Corporation Roscosmos, Ivan Safronov, of working for one of the NATO countries. At the first session of the court, it turned out that Safronov was suspected of working for Czech intelligence 8 years ago.

From the Czech Republic, all data was sent to the Pentagon.

Employees of Russian counterintelligence not only knew about these facts, but actively leaked false documents to the journalist. Safronov was used in the dark: they passed him disinformation that was necessary to convey to the West in the interests of Russia.

The journalist was followed for a very long time: his phone was tapped, and his correspondence was tracked. Over the years, the criminal case against Safronov has swelled to 8 volumes!

Perhaps this is why Safronov was not allowed to access secret information at Roscosmos. This explanation can be accepted if we take into account that Safronov got to work at Roscosmos only 4 weeks ago after two months of verification, in which the FSB also participated.

In court, Safronov said that he did not feel any guilt and refused to testify, citing article 51 of the Constitution.

According to a number of sources, the detainee is also suspected that in 2017, he told Czech intelligence officers about the supply of Russian weapons to Africa and Syria. The reasons for this will be studied by a judge who arrested a 30-year-old civil servant for 2 months.

The state Prosecutor from the Prosecutor General's office supported the charge and recognized the criminal prosecution of the civil servant as justified.

Note that at the first meeting, the judge supported the investigation's demand: the trial will be held behind closed doors, since the case materials contain secret information that is presented to the state secret service.

Safronov managed to work in the Newspapers " Kommersant" and "Vedomosti". He was interested in exclusive information on military and space topics.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Isn't it uncanny how many Russian trials are conducted behind closed doors?

Almost as uncanny as the number of Russians who fall out of high windows.

 

[Ringo Stalin]

Sofia Rusova, a member of a certain trade Union of journalists:
"In place of Ivan can be any of us."
The phrase will sound especially wonderful if the state treason of Safronov is convincingly proved.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Sofia Rusova, a member of a certain trade Union of journalists:
"In place of Ivan can be any of us."
The phrase will sound especially wonderful if the state treason of Safronov is convincingly proved.

More mumbo-jumbo from our esteemed comrade Mr. Stalin.

 

[Westphalian]

This is Russian rules of law based justice in action.

We don't engage in western style show trials.

 

[Chagos]

This is Russian rules of law based justice in action.

We don't engage in western style show trials.

:lamo:lamo:lamo

 

[Rogue Valley]

This is Russian rules of law based justice in action.

We don't engage in western style show trials.

:rofl

Did you type that biting your lip?

 

[ThirdTerm]

According to TASS (Russian), Ivan Safronov has repeatedly met with a Czech intelligence officer, Martin Larysh, and they have been close friends since at least 2012. It is possible that he actually leaked some sensitive military information to Larysh. Larysh headed the Center for Security Analysis and Prevention, which is associated with the Czech special services.

“In 2010-2012, Larysh worked as a journalist for the Lidove noviny newspaper in Moscow, and later headed the Center for Security Analysis and Prevention, which prepares security reports in Eastern Europe and Africa. The activity of this center is closely related to the work of the Czech special services, and Larysh himself is their personnel officer,” the source said.

Earlier, that Safronov met with a Czech citizen Martin Larysh, who for reported the publication "Project". At the same time, journalists noted that they did not know anything about whether Larysh was connected with special services.

Judging by the posts in the social networks of Safronov, they are familiar with Larysh and have been close friends since at least 2012.

 

[Rogue Valley]

According to TASS .....

That says about enough.

 

[Westphalian]

:rofl

Did you type that biting your lip?

Well, here's a link to a court specifically set up to stage show trials of designated enemies of the West:

International Criminal Court


I know what it's like in the US and UK. Russia and China are designated enemies. The people must learn to hate them.

 

[Chagos]

Well, here's a link to a court specifically set up to stage show trials of designated enemies of the West:

International Criminal Court


I know what it's like in the US and UK. Russia and China are designated enemies. The people must learn to hate them.

This one's for you, oh demonstrator of the hypocrisy from the country that practically invented show trials.

 

[Rogue Valley]

Well, here's a link to a court specifically set up to stage show trials of designated enemies of the West:

International Criminal Court

I know what it's like in the US and UK. Russia and China are designated enemies. The people must learn to hate them.

Why are Russian trials of foreigners and political activists all closed trails?

Because they're phony trials in Moscow kangaroo courts. Russia invented this modality with Stalin's "Show Trials" of 1936 — 1938.

 

[Ringo Stalin]

May I remind you where and how the pedophile Epstein ended his life? Or american pedophiles one thing, while russian ones become "repressed historians"?

 

[Ringo Stalin]

This one's for you, oh demonstrator of the hypocrisy from the country that practically invented show trials.

Show trials? US ambassador to USSR in 1936-38 Joseph Edward Davies wouldn't agree with you. Davies attended the Trial of the Twenty One, one of the trials of the late 1930s. He was convinced of the guilt of the accused. According to Davies, "the Kremlin's fears [regarding treason in the Army and Party] were well justified".

But who the hell Davies is compare to you? He was a just some lawyer and you, probably, expert in everything.

P.S.The USSR certainly did not invent the "Monkey trial" and Russia still doesn't have very profitable private jails.

 

[Chagos]

Show trials? US ambassador to USSR in 1936-38 Joseph Edward Davies wouldn't agree with you. Davies attended the Trial of the Twenty One, one of the trials of the late 1930s. He was convinced of the guilt of the accused. According to Davies, "the Kremlin's fears [regarding treason in the Army and Party] were well justified".

But who the hell Davies is compare to you? He was a just some lawyer and you, probably, expert in everything.

I'm expert enough to know that holding a law degree does not necessarily preclude the holder from being a total idiot. So if you want to cite one of those in defense of Stalin's purges, congratulations on your successfully having disqualified yourself.

P.S.The USSR certainly did not invent the "Monkey trial" and Russia still doesn't have very profitable private jails.

Russia doesn't have profitable "anything".

 

[Rogue Valley]

Show trials? US ambassador to USSR in 1936-38 Joseph Edward Davies wouldn't agree with you.

Davies attended the Trial of the Twenty One, one of the Stalinist purge trials of the late 1930s.[8] He was convinced of the guilt of the accused. According to Davies, "the Kremlin's fears [regarding treason in the Army and Party] were well justified".[9] His opinions were at odds with much of the Western press of the day, as well as those of his own staff, many of whom had been in the country far longer than Davies.[10] The career diplomat Charles Bohlen, who served under Davies in Moscow, later wrote:[10] Ambassador Davies was not noted for an acute understanding of the Soviet system, and he had an unfortunate tendency to take what was presented at the trial as the honest and gospel truth. I still blush when I think of some of the telegrams he sent to the State Department about the trial.(p.51) I can only guess at the motivation for his reporting. He ardently desired to make a success of a pro-Soviet line and was probably reflecting the views of some of Roosevelt's advisors to enhance his political standing at home.(p.52) Davies even claimed that communism was "protecting the Christian world of free men", and he urged all Christians "by the faith you have found at your mother's knee, in the name of the faith you have found in temples of worship" to embrace the Soviet Union.[11]

Wikipedia - Joseph E. Davies

Try again Mr. Stalin.

 

[Ringo Stalin]

I'm expert enough to know that holding a law degree does not necessarily preclude the holder from being a total idiot. So if you want to cite one of those in defense of Stalin's purges, congratulations on your successfully having disqualified yourself.

You don't know anything that didn't originate in Dr. Goebbels ' Ministry of propaganda and was carefully preserved and used in the war of ideologies.

[/QUOTE]Russia doesn't have profitable "anything".[/QUOTE]
Keep thinking that. You can even add "Colossus on clay feet" to your propaganda vocabulary.

 

[Chagos]

You don't know anything that didn't originate in Dr. Goebbels ' Ministry of propaganda and was carefully preserved and used in the war of ideologies.

Keep thinking that. You can even add "Colossus on clay feet" to your propaganda vocabulary.

Are your employers aware of what BS you are spreading?

More importantly, how much you embarrass them in that process?