MOSCOW (AP) — An adviser to the director of Russia’s state space corporation has been detained on treason charges, the nation’s top security agency says.
Ivan Safronov, a former journalist who served as an adviser to Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin, was detained in Moscow by agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main KGB successor agency.
Ivan Safronov in Kommersant Publishing House in Moscow, Russia, January 10, 2016. (Peter Kassin, Kommersant Photo via AP)
The FSB says that Safronov is accused of relaying sensitive data to a spy agency of an unspecified NATO member. It says in a statement that the information he provided referred to “military-technical cooperation, defense and security of the Russian Federation.”
Safronov could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Last year, the FSB reportedly opened an inquiry following Safronov’s article that claimed that Russia had signed a contract with Egypt for the delivery of sophisticated Su-35 fighter jets. Kommersant later removed the report from its website, and no charges were filed.
Safronov’s father also worked for Kommersant after retiring from the armed forces and covered military issues. In 2007, he died after falling from a window of his apartment building in Moscow. Investigators concluded that he killed himself, but some Russian media questioned the official version, pointing at his intention to publish a sensitive report about secret arms deliveries to Iran and Syria.
— AP
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