Ivan Safronov was transferred to a colony near Krasnoyarsk

Ivan Safronov, a former journalist of Kommersant and Vedomosti newspapers, was transferred to the strict regime penal colony No. 7 in the Krasnoyarsk region. This is stated in his letter published in the Telegram channel “SvoboduSafronov!”

“My route from Moscow (“Lefortovo”) to Krasnoyarsk took about three weeks, which is considered fast. I saw many people, visited various prisons and transit stations, changed God knows how many “stolypins”. But I can say with confidence as before : life, no matter what, is everywhere. I proved it when I was in Lefortovo. And I’m sure I’ll prove it when I’m in the colony,” Safronov wrote.

In September 2022, Ivan Safronov was sentenced to 22 years of imprisonment in a high-security prison on charges of treason. In December, the appellate court upheld the sentence.

Safronov does not admit guilt. Many of his colleagues and human rights activists consider the sentence a revenge for Safronov’s journalistic work. “Memorial” recognized him as a political prisoner.

• Safronov was arrested in July 2020 and sent to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center. The court considered the proven version of the investigation that in 2017, Safronov gave the Czech intelligence secret information about Russia’s military-technical cooperation in Africa and the activities of the Russian Armed Forces in the Middle East. In addition, he was found guilty of passing on secret data that got to German intelligence.
• The journalist was the author of a number of high-profile publications in the media about the Russian army, space and military industry. Investigators deny that the criminal prosecution of Safronov is related to his work, but earlier they offered him to enter into a pretrial agreement in exchange for the disclosure of journalistic sources.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin has twice publicly stated that the charges are related to the period of work at Roskosmos, where Safronov got a job as an adviser to the director general on communications in 2020. Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, specified that the president had “communicated”.