The Moscow Lefortovo court ruled to detain adviser to the Director General of Roscosmos, a former journalist for Kommersant, Ivan Safronov, TASS reports.

“To satisfy the petition of the investigation, to select Safronov’s preventive measure in the form of detention for a period of one month and 30 days,” the judge Sergey Ryabtsev announced the decision.

Safronov himself said in court that he does not admit guilt in treason.

  • Ivan Safronov in court

The court session was held behind closed doors, as the case materials contain classified information. Listeners were allowed only until the final part of the decision was announced.

As one of the suspect’s lawyers Oleg Eliseev told TASS, the FSB plans on July 13 to file charges of treason with Ivan Safronov. 

“On Monday, the investigation intends to indict Ivan Safronov,” he said.

In addition, lawyer Ivan Pavlov said that his client was suspected of working for Czech special services.

“The investigator <...> claimed that there was evidence of the transfer of a certain document,” RIA Novosti quoted him as saying.

“The United States is mentioned in a criminal case. The states are indicated as the state that received this information from Safronov through the Czech special services, ”Pavlov said.

The detention of Ivan Safronov on the morning of July 7 was reported by the press service of Roscosmos. He was charged under Art. 275 of the Criminal Code (High Treason). The state corporation noted that the company is assisting the investigation, and the detention of Safronov “does not concern his current work.”

In turn, the FSB of Russia clarified that Ivan Safronov is suspected of transmitting classified information to a representative of one of the special services of NATO countries. 

“Safronov, fulfilling the tasks of one of the NATO special services, collected and handed over to her representative state secrets about military-technical cooperation, defense and security of the Russian Federation,” the agency’s press service said.

The spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, also responded to the detention of the journalist. 

“As far as we are aware, this detention is in no way connected with journalistic activities, which Ivan Safronov was previously engaged in,” he said.

Peskov added that Vladimir Putin was not informed of the relevant case, explaining that “there is no need for the president to inform about all the nuances of counterintelligence work,” which is conducted 24 hours a day.

In turn, the head of "Roskosmos" Dmitry Rogozin said that Safronov did not have access to classified information while working in the state corporation.

“A month and a half ago he was invited to cover the activities of Roscosmos. He had no access to classified information, ”he told TASS.

Rogozin added that for several years he knew Safronov as a journalist who was deeply versed in the material and did not doubt his "high professionalism and personal decency."

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry reported that about 20 people were detained during an uncoordinated rally on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. As noted in the department, the participants in the event were taken to the territorial police units, the issue of bringing them to administrative responsibility is currently being decided.

Prior to this, the media reported that about two dozen people came out in support of Ivan Safronov near the FSB building, most of them turned out to be journalists.

Recall, Ivan Safronov was born in Moscow in 1990, in 2010 he graduated from the Higher School of Economics with a degree in journalism.

After graduating until 2019, he worked as a correspondent and special correspondent for the Kommersant newspaper, and in 2019–2020, he worked as a special correspondent for the Vedomosti newspaper. In the course of his work, he addressed the coverage of military and military-technical cooperation, the problems of the military-industrial complex and the space industry.

The journalist left Kommersant after a scandalous article about the possible resignation of the head of the Federation Council, Valentina Matvienko. In a material released in April 2019, citing anonymous sources, it was reported that Matvienko could allegedly leave his post. Then the press secretary of the speaker of the upper house Vladislav Ponomarenko said that the content of the article is based on rumors.