The Moscow City Court sentenced political scientist Demuri Voronin, who appeared in the case of journalist Ivan Safronov, to 13 years and three months in prison. This was reported to RTVI in the press service of the court.
Voronin was found guilty of treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code). As the press service specifies, the verdict was pronounced on February 17, 2023.
In September 2022, Ivan Safronov, a journalist and former adviser to the head of Roscosmos, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in a treason case. The investigation claimed that Safronov allegedly cooperated with Czech and German intelligence services and passed on information “about military-technical cooperation between Russia and the Middle Eastern African state”. According to the investigators, the United States was the final recipient of the data. Safronov denies these accusations.
From 2010 to 2019, Safronov worked at Kommersant, where he wrote on the topics of military, weapons and space. The BBC’s Russian Service wrote that the criminal case against Safronov may be linked to his publication of material in Kommersant on the supply of Russian Su-35s to Egypt, to which Egypt’s military leadership reacted negatively.
According to the Agency’s investigation, which obtained the indictment in the Safronov case, none of the prosecution witnesses know anything about the crimes of which the journalist is accused. The FSB claims that Safronov discovered information containing state secrets from officials who had access to it. However, it emerged from the officials’ testimony that none of them passed on any secret information to the journalist.
There were several episodes in the Safronov case, one of which featured political scientist Demuri Voronin. According to the investigation, in December 2015, Voronin allegedly received information from a journalist about the activities of Russian troops in Syria for $248, after which he passed it on to German intelligence. Voronin was arrested in February 2021.
According to the Agency, Safronov wrote several analytical reviews for Voronin. At the same time, dozens of other Russian journalists collaborated with the political scientist, who wrote various materials for him. As reported by the publication, after the arrest, Safronov reached an agreement with the investigation and testified against the journalist. However, in April 2022, during a closed hearing, the political scientist retracted his testimony, said he had slandered the journalist and testified in his favor.
