The terrible there was about how the security forces are ready for anything so that the former journalist of Kommersant admits to Gosizmen. And he is not recognized

The charges of the case of Russian journalist Ivan Safronov in court unexpectedly quickly managed. Safronov’s guilt (he is accused of transferring secret materials to Czech intelligence services about the supply of Russian weapons to the countries of Africa and the Middle East), the prosecutor's office took only two months. And this is not an accelerated trial in a special order - Safronov did not plead guilty. This is a full -fledged process. And then two months ... What is surprising, given the severity of Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation-Gosizman, resonance (Safronov was detained when he took office as an adviser to the head of Roscosmos) and the investigation, which was conducted by the FSB investigator Alexander Chaban-1.5 years. And the prosecution questioned in court was only six - a smaller part of the ordered by the prosecutor’s office initially. In a word, something went wrong. Moreover, it did not go so after the interrogation of these six witnesses of the prosecution. If you believe the defense of the accused (the media can’t get to the process - it takes place closed, like all the processes under the article “Gosizman”), all six told in court that they know Safronov as a professional journalist who always worked with open sources of information. Witnesses of the prosecution did not tell anything about his connections and cooperation with Czech intelligence.

One way or another. After interrogations, the prosecutor's office asked the court a break of two weeks, after which she came out and said that she had everything with evidence. Especially for Novaya Gazeta. Europe ”journalist Vera Chelyishcheva recalls how this strange thing began, why Ivan Safronov went to journalism and in which prison he is sitting.

Father

Ivan Safronov is the youngest prisoner of the Russian investigative insulator Lefortovo. He spent the last two years of them for the past two years in the walls of this very old and most closed prison of Russia, through which those whose criminal cases have always been of particular state importance passed.

Perhaps he would not go to military journalism and journalism in general, Lefortovo would not have happened in Safronov’s life. Born in Moscow, in 1990. Seriously, since childhood, he was engaged in ballroom dancing, even becoming the champion of the capital. By the end of school, the choice for Ivan was determined by fate. His father, a military journalist of Kommersant, a former missile, Ivan Safronov, died. The tragedy occurred on March 2, 2007 under the legally so far and not found out circumstances. Before his death, he prepared material about the secret supplies of Russian aircraft and anti -aircraft complexes to Syria and Iran through Belarus. The day before he informed his colleagues that in the near future he would put the text by phone, but he never got in touch. Soon he was found dead-Safronov Sr. suddenly fell out of the window of the staircase of his entrance on Nizhny Novgorod Street. The prosecutor's office of the Tagansky district of Moscow then opened the case of bringing to suicide, which then terminated the charges without a charges.

After the death of his father, Ivan Safronov Jr. decided to go to the department of business and political journalism of the Higher School of Economics, which he graduated in 2011. At the same time, with his studies, he began to work in the same place where his father had worked until recently - to Kommersant. Over 9 years, he went from an ordinary correspondent to a special corrier, which was part of the Kremlin press gun. What is important:

Throughout the years, including those that are charged with him as cooperation with Czech intelligence, Safronov as a journalist of the Kremlin pool successfully passed the regular mandatory special overtives of the FSB.

By the time of arrest, he was one of the most cited in Russia by journalists from among specializing in military themes and space. After the arrest, his talent and fame will be confirmed by the Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

From Kommersant to Roscosmos

However, Safronov, although he entered the Kremlin pool, was never an exemplary-deciduous state-journalist who avoids uncomfortable political topics and focused only on his military specifics. So, in the spring of 2019, along with other businessmen of Kommersant, he published an article on the possible resignation of the then speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko. The material caused an ambiguous reaction and led to a conflict within the editorial office of Kommersant - between the leadership of the newspaper and the journalistic team. A number of the media, with reference to sources within the Federation Council and the Presidential Administration, wrote that Matvienko called the owner of Kommersant Alisher Usmanov and demanded to take measures. Bottom line: a month later, almost all employees of the policy department left the newspaper, including Safronov himself.

He went to Vedomosti, where he also mainly covered military and military-industrial problems. However, less than a year later, Safronov had to leave Vedomosti. At the publication, the owners and editor were replaced, who began to intervene in an editorial policy. On April 23, 2020, a statement by the editorial staff was published on the newspaper’s website, in which they indicated as examples of intervention to replace the heading of the publication about Rosneft (the head of which is the oligarch Igor Sichin, close to Putin), the removal of the column of economist Konstantin Sonin about Rosneft and the ban on mentioning the data of Levada-Center (which Later they recognize the “ino -agent”). Safronov did not wait for the further development of events and left Vedomosti immediately after the first meeting of the editorial office and the future editor -in -chief Andrei Shmarov.

For the first time in his life, work was waiting for him not in the media. In May 2020, on the eve of his 30th anniversary, Safronov received the post of adviser to Dmitry Rogozin, General Director of the Roscosmos State Corporation. As the source of TASS agency noted then, Safronov was supposed to build an information policy in Roscosmos and at the enterprises, as well as oversee the “A number of special programs”.

However, in less than two months, another unexpected event occurred. This time the crossed out of Ivan Safronov to “before” and “after”. He was detained.

Accusation of Gosizman and investigator Chaban

Everything happened near the same house on Nizhny Novgorod Street in Moscow, where 13 years ago it was discovered from the Safron Sr. Safronov window. Safronova Jr. was detained at the exit from the house on the morning of July 7, 2020, when he was going to work in the state corporation. The operatives in dark masks, wringing his hands and holding them handcuffs, Safronov himself, standing facing the operational gazelle, his search ... These shots with Safronov Jr. shocked everyone who knew him. Subsequent accusations made. The press service of the FSB on the same day reported that Safronov, "completing the tasks of one of the NATO special services, collected and transmitted it to the representative of the state secret of information about military-technical cooperation, defense and security of the Russian Federation." A criminal case was opened against him under Article 275 of the Criminal Code of Russia (“State treason”).

Ivan’s colleagues at first suggested that the reason for the initiation of a criminal case could be his publication for 2019 at Kommersant on a contract for the supply of the Party of the latest Russian Su-35 fighters to Egypt. After the release of the article, the then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned Egypt about possible American sanctions in case of acquiring Russian combat aircraft. At the request of the Russian special services, the article by Safronov was removed from the newspaper website. The publication was involved in the administrative trial for the disclosure of information representing the "state secret." However, the court, without consideration, returned the case to Roskomnadzor, since the claims of the department were formulated unknown.

Soon, the lawyers who entered the defense of Ivan Safronov clarified: he was suspected that he was recruited in the Czech special services in 2012, and in 2017 he received a mission from them.

Allegedly, he transmitted information through the Internet about the supply of Russian weapons to the Middle East and Africa.

From the first day, Safronov refused to plead guilty during interrogations at the FSB. The investigation of his case was carried out by the fairly famous investigator of the Investigative Department of the FSB, Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Chaban. His specialization is the affairs of the Stateizer and Spying. Ivan Safronov became the first journalist in the career of a shepherd, before that he was mainly the fate of scientists, who were also accused of “Gosizmen”. For some of them, as for the physicist scientist Viktor Kudryavtsev and his colleagues Roman Kovalev (leading specialists of the Central Research Institute of Engineering), the accusations of stateisms were literally fatal. Both suddenly died of cancer. Roman Kovalev was deigned to be released two weeks before his death.

FSB against journalists - 1: 0

According to the degree of workshop solidarity, Ivan Safronov’s support was not inferior to the support of journalist Ivan Golunov. A year earlier, in June 2019, the metropolitan police threw drugs in Golunov, inventing, in addition, the fake drug laboratory supposedly “in the journalist’s apartment”. Golunov’s colleagues almost from all Russian media picketed Petrovka for two days, 38 - the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The situation has acquired a wide public outcry. The case fell apart on the third day: the investigators were able to prove the classic drug tossing, Kolunov was released. To date, law enforcement officers involved in his detention and fabrication of the case have been sentenced to real terms of imprisonment.

In the case of Safronov, his colleagues - among them, Ivan Kolunov - also went out on pickets. This time, to the FSB building on Lubyanka, to the investigative isolator Lefortovo, to the Lefortovo court, who elected Safronov arrest ... Human rights activists demanded the openness of the investigation of the criminal case and publicity of the court. The Union of Russian Journalists sent a request addressed to the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov with a request to provide information about the connection of the Safronov case with his journalistic activity. Safronov’s immediate liberation was also required by the international non -governmental human rights organization Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

But everything was in vain: they did not react to appeals, and journalists going to single pickets were taken away in autozaks to the police department.

This time, it was impossible to recapture his colleague to the journalistic shop. The FSB won.

Refusal of transactions with the investigation

During the investigation of the case from the lawyers Ivan Safronov, it became known that the foreign intelligence service of the Russian Federation for a long time secretly controlled Safronov’s correspondence by e -mail from a home computer. As the lawyer Ivan Pavlov said, the investigation believed that secret information was transmitted by Safronov on the Internet using encryption methods. According to the investigation of the FSB, Safronov, in the collection and transfer of information to counterparties, used Veracrypt encryption software, and fragments from the book of the writer-historian Roy Medvedev “Traveling through the era of Yeltsin” in English were used as passwords. However, Voracrypt is a product that is common among users used by journalists, lawyers and human rights activists for confidential communication. In this connection, as lawyers noted, the use of encryption without the study of the content of texts in itself does not prove that Safronov has committed a crime.

As for the examinations, their conclusions vary. Thus, the defense claimed that the experts of the FSB Institute of Forensics did not find information containing GOSTain in the publications of the journalist. But the experts of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, on the contrary, confirmed the secrecy of the information on the supply of weapons and the actions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the countries of Africa and the Middle East, which Safronov seemed to transmit Czech intelligence.

What Safronov’s colleagues managed to establish for sure is that he was friends and repeatedly met with Martin Larish, who in 2012 worked in Moscow by a correspondent of the Czech newspaper Lidové Noviny, and then in the Czech Republic became the head of the Center for Analysis and Security Prevention, specializing in the preparation of security reports in Eastern Europe and Africa (second The co -founder of the center, executive director and partner of Larisha is the former senior employee of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic Tomash Kolomaznik, earlier in the Ministry of Defense he was responsible for working with NATO and the European Union). Later, Martin Larish himself confirmed his acquaintance with the BBC service with Safronov, but declared non-involvement in Czech intelligence.

A few days after the arrest of Safronov, the investigator proposed the first deal with the investigation.

He will refuse. Subsequently, there will be several more such proposals. Ivan will refuse time after time.

Witness Rogozin

Safronov will not be dismissed from Roscosmos, despite the arrest and a serious article. And although the criminal case will not be associated with the short work of Safronov as an adviser to the head of the state corporation, in the summer of 2021 Dmitry Rogozin will be questioned as a witness in the case. Rogozin himself will tell reporters: “Mr. Safronov continues to remain our employee until there is a change in his fate. He is under investigation. Any of my statements, especially public ones, can harm ... We must be as accurate as possible. There is a competent protection, they collect the necessary materials. Let's hope that this situation will be resolved. ”

The detention of a lawyer Pavlov

In 2021, Ivan Safronov lost a serious help in the person of lawyer Ivan Pavlov, a well -known lawyer specializing in defending the accused of Gosizmen and Spying. Pavlov was detained by opening a criminal case against him about the disclosure of the preliminary investigation data. He was guilty of being given to reporters a copy of the decision to attract Safronov as the accused and informed them of a secret witness in the case. Immediately after the prosecution, the lawyer was released. A few months later, Pavlov was forced to leave the country "because of the impossibility of fully working." In parallel, he was also recognized as an “ino -agent”.

The rest of the journalist’s lawyers are also connected by subscriptions about the non-disclosure of the details of the case and comment on the media only in the most general terms.

On November 1, 2021, the FSB completed the investigation in the case of Safronov. The case materials totaled 20 volumes. Then it became known that Safronov was also accused of transmitting information and German intelligence. In the criminal case, an episode appears that Safronov sold information on the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria by the political scientist Demuri Voronin (subsequently arrested on suspicion of Stateizer), which he redirected to representatives of the University of Switzerland and the Federal Intelligence Service of Germany. According to the FSB, information transferred from Safronov to the West could be used to analyze the actions of Russian troops in Syria.

Court

On March 5, 2022, Safronov’s criminal case was transferred for consideration on the merits to the Moscow City Court. As he told Novaya Gazeta. Europe ”Lawyer Safronova Dmitry Katchev, on May 18, 2022, during the process, the prosecutor's office refused further interrogations of most of its witnesses. This happened after the first batch of witnesses of the prosecution gave evidence that refuted the version of the FSB. Including testimonies were given by the defendant of another similar case, who previously concluded a deal with the investigation.

Dmitry Katchev - Novaya Gazeta. Europe":

“The accusation presented evidence from mid -March to mid -May. Meetings took 2-3 times a week. First, as usual, the written part, then the witnesses went. But in the end, of all the witnesses declared by the prosecutor’s office, only six people were questioned in court. Among them were secretaries. The rest of the people are not public, known in narrow circles, but everyone intersected with Ivan. No one confirmed the version of the prosecution. Everyone confirmed that they knew Ivan as a professional journalist who worked with open sources. People said they knew. No more or less.

It seems to me that the prosecution did not expect this. The prosecutors took a break for two weeks, and then reported that they had finished presenting their evidence. ”

Now the stage to present evidence by the side of protection and Safronov himself. However, after the unexpected step of prosecutors, the Moscow City Court announced the next break in the process - almost a month.

- Ivan’s mood - he is glad that the witnesses did not say to him, honestly told what they knew. He is glad that there was without a substitution, ”adds lawyer Katchev. - Now Ivan is still unlimited in Lefortovo. On May 18, he celebrated his 32 years there.

Prison: from NKVD to FSB

Lefortovo is the most specific investigative insulator in Russia. Кого только не видели его стены: репрессированная советская номенклатура 1930-1940-х, «шпионы», «враги народа», их палачи… В 70-х — диссиденты, в 90-х — путчисты и революционер Лимонов. Сегодня — попавшие в немилость крупные предприниматели медведевского периода правления, пожилые ученые и их ученики, провинившиеся путинские губернаторы, сенаторы и чиновники, лица, обвиняемые в терроризме, а с недавних пор еще журналисты, блогеры, снимающие репортажи с промышленных объектов и транспортной инфраструктуры, и совладельцы компаний по предотвращению и расследованию киберпреступлений…

Те, кто когда-то посещал «Лефортово» изнутри, говорят, что здесь до сих пор витает дух прошлых десятилетий. Во время «Большого террора» тюрьма находилась в подчинении ГУГБ НКВД и широко использовалось как место пыток при проведении допросов. С 1950 по 1990-е здесь был следственный изолятор КГБ СССР. До 2005-го «Лефортово» находилось в подчинении ФСБ. И несмотря на то, что потом она была переведена под управление министерства юстиции и в силу нового закона ФСБ запрещалось иметь следственные изоляторы, сегодня «Лефортово» неформально так и осталось вотчиной чекистов.

Что подтвердит любой адвокат и родственник арестантов «Лефортово»: сотрудники ФСБ ведут себя в этой тюрьме как у себя дома.

За два года Ивану Сафронову ни разу не разрешили свидания с матерью, сестрой и девушкой. Даже через стекло. Собственно, свидания в «Лефортово» не дают всем арестантам. То есть человек может хоть четыре года находиться в «Лефортово» до приговора, но свидания с родными он не получит. Это противоречит закону. Но тут так заведено. Норма, которую никто не может победить. Редко-редко арестантам разрешаются звонки, это зависит от волеизъявления следователя. Следователь Чабан звонки Ивану Сафронову не разрешает. Единственная его стабильная связь с внешним миром — почтовые письма. Ему пишут друзья, коллеги и даже те, кто не знал его лично. Иногда письма приходят день в день. Но и опция с письмами по прихоти следователя Чабана иногда рвется.

Так, осенью 2021 года Сафронов перестал получать корреспонденцию. Администрация СИЗО призналась адвокатам, что это произошло по запросу следователя, который прислал в СИЗО письмо о необходимости изъятия входящей и исходящей корреспонденции Сафронова. В тот момент по стечению обстоятельств Сафронов отказался от очередной предложенной ему Чабаном сделки со следствием…

Как ожидается, приговор в отношении Ивана Сафронова-младшего будет вынесен в этом году. He faces up to 20 years in prison.