For a decade, Ivan Safronov was a well-respected military correspondent for two establishment newspapers who then went to work for the Russian space agency, Roscosmos.
But on July 7, 2020, Safronov was arrested and charged with treason for allegedly sharing secrets with Czech intelligence. Two years later, on Sept. 5, 2022, he was convicted and sentenced to 22 years behind bars, which he is serving in a prison in the Krasnoyarsk region of Siberia.
Safronov’s fiancée, independent TV Rain journalist Ksenia Mironova, said his case was used to prepare society for the invasion of Ukraine and show journalists they should not write about the military anymore.
Kirill Martynov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta Europe, a leading Russian investigative media outlet in exile in Latvia, said he was “personally shocked because they attacked not only him and his family and his friends, but they attacked the whole professional community [with] his sentence.
“They actually [insisted] that journalism is a crime,” Martynov told Capital News Service, “… and they will prosecute [anybody] who really [believes] in independent journalism.”
Safronov’s prosecution “was [the] first signal that, in general, there are no longer protected categories” of journalism, said Konstantin Sonin, a Russian political economist and former columnist for Vedomosti, an independent news outlet.
Sonin said that before Safronov’s arrest, journalists believed that if they were not writing about politics, they were safe.
Safronov’s trial was closed to the public because the government alleged it involved secret data that could be a threat to national security if made public.
But Martynov said it is easy for courts to close trials when there are problems with the evidence. “Behind closed doors,” he said “… you don’t need to prove anything.”
The Russian Embassy declined to comment on the case.
Safronov’s work history
Ivan Safronov spent almost 10 years working for Kommersant, a daily business newspaper now owned by a person the U.S. Department of Treasury describes as a pro-Putin oligarch.
Safronov and another journalist, Maxim Ivanov, were fired on May 20, 2019, at the request of the owner. Meduza, a Russian investigative news outlet based in Latvia, reported that the firings came because of an article the two men wrote about the potential resignation of Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation.
Matviyenko is a Ukrainian-born politician whom multiple news sources call Putin’s right-hand woman.
The day after Safronov was fired, the Russian media regulator, Roskomnadzor, also ordered Kommersant to delete Safronov’s article about Russia’s sale of fighter jets to Egypt.
Following his dismissal from Kommersant, Safronov went to work for Vedomosti, another formerly independent, daily business newspaper. He continued to cover sensitive topics including the deaths of Russian soldiers in Syria and an alleged American spy in the Kremlin.
All five deputy editors-in-chief, Safronov and other journalists left Vedomosti on June 15, 2020, to protest the new editor-in-chief’s repeated violations of its editorial standards, according to an article published by Vedomosti.
Safronov then went to work as an adviser to the head of Roscosmos.
The Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, said Safronov’s case was unrelated to his journalism. But one of his attorneys, Ivan Pavlov, said investigators wanted Safronov to disclose his sources.
“Ivan Safronov refused to do it and got a 20-year sentence,” Pavlov told CNS.
Safronov’s father, Ivan Ivanovich Safronov, was also a military correspondent in Russia. He died suspiciously in 2007 when he fell out of a fifth story window of his apartment complex, although he lived on the third floor, according to news reports at the time.
His death was ruled a suicide by Russian officials, but multiple Russian journalists have died when they fell out of windows after reporting on sensitive topics.
Censorship in Russia
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000, 35 journalists have been killed for their work in Russia and another 24 imprisoned, according to international media advocacy organizations.
Putin’s campaign against journalists intensified leading up to the country’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. A week later, he signed a bill criminalizing publishing “false information” about the Russian military, which Roskomnadzor defined as information not provided by official Russian sources.
Since then, Russia has banned or blocked most independent news sites and publications, imprisoned nine journalists in 2022 alone, and allegedly poisoned three Russian journalists who fled to Europe, according to multiple news organizations.
Mironova said Putin’s censorship laws were passed to convince Russian citizens that he’s protecting them from what he calls “foreign agents,” nongovernmental organizations involved in political activity or media outlets that receive funding from abroad.
The government says, “We have these laws because these people are foreign agents,” Mironova said. “They have NATO money. They want to destroy Russia. They want to attack us.”
The Fiancee’s Persecution
Even before Safronov’s arrest, his fiancée, Mironova, said they knew people were following them.
Realizing this, in 2021 she prepared two go bags: one for immigration and one for jail. To prepare for the worst, she stopped coloring her hair, painting her nails, and taking antidepressants. “I stopped using antidepressants because I thought that if I [am] in jail, of course they won’t give me medicine,” Miranova said. “I [would] feel bad, so I have [to stop using] them.”
After Safronov was arrested, Mironova said she thought she would never leave Russia.
But months before his conviction, Mironova had to flee after TV Rain was raided by police and shut down. The staff had a two-minute warning that police were coming. They left Russia that night.
“It was, I guess, the first time in two years when I cried so loud because I told them I cannot leave because of [Safronov],” Mironova said. “But my colleagues and my boss told [me] I have to and that my family doesn’t need two journalists political prisoners in our family.”
Mironova now lives in Prague and works for the media team at Helpdesk Media, which was started after the war to document the people affected by it. She also runs a podcast, Time No Longer, that focuses on the families of political prisoners in Russia.
Mironova said helping other people helps her stay healthy.
“There is no prize at the end of my life [for having] the biggest tragedy or [being] the saddest person in the world,” Mironova said. “I only have one life, and even if we have this situation, it doesn’t mean that I have no right to live.”
Recent Updates
Safronov’s appeal was denied in August.
His friends run a Telegram channel, “Freedom for Safronov!,” that posts updates about his case and well-being.
On May 11, 2023, the channel shared that his mother and sister visited him for the first time in almost three years. His sister, Irina, said there are about 60 people in his barrack. Most are uneducated young men imprisoned on drug-related offenses. Safronov teaches them to write letters and he also takes care of a grandfather in poor health.
Safronov’s letters remain optimistic and he regularly includes smiley faces in them.
The prison, however, denies prisoners sleep and hygienic needs and forces them to do meaningless tasks like standing outside for a few hours, said Olga Sadovskaya, vice chair of the World Organization Against Torture.
“I won’t be very optimistic if he could live until the end of his imprisonment in the conditions he’s put in,” she told CNS.
Regardless, Irina Safronova said that Safronov continues to joke and doesn’t drown in self-pity. In one letter posted on the Telegram channel recently, he wrote: “But as before, I can say with confidence: life, no matter what, is everywhere.”