Moscow, July 7 (IANS) Ivan Safronov, advisor to the CEO of Russia’s Roscosmos on informational policy, was arrested on Tuesday over suspicion of treason, the state space agency said.
Confirming the arrest, Roscosmos told TASS News Agency that Safronov was charged with treason.
“Investigation is underway,” it said, adding that the space agency fully cooperates with the probe.
Safronov, a former journalist, worked at the business dailies Kommersant and Vedomosti before joining Roscosmos in May.
In June 2019, court proceedings were held over the alleged disclosure by Kommersant of information constituting a state secret, the BBC said in a report.
The information reportedly had to do with an article co-authored by Safronov about Russia’s deliveries of Su-35 fighter aircraft to Egypt.
The report was later removed from the Kommersant website.
Safronov’s father, also named Ivan, was a well-known military commentator at Kommersant.
He died after falling from the fifth floor of a Moscow apartment building in 2007.
Ivan Safronov senior had been investigating claims of planned Russian arms sales to Syria and Iran at the time of his death, Kommersant said.
–IANS
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