Russian ex-journalist Safronov accused of sending secret information to NATO spies using his home computer, says lawyer

Russian investigators believe that Ivan Safronov, the former newspaper reporter accused of spying for Czech intelligence, transferred secret data to Prague using his home computer.

That’s according to Safronov’s lawyer, Ivan Pavlov, who has regularly provided the public with updates as the case has progressed.

He says that investigators claim the adviser to Dmitry Rogozin, the head of national space agency Roscosmos, transferred secret information to the Czechs using VeraCrypt encryption software. They also allege that fragments of the historian Roy Medvedev’s book ‘Post-Soviet Russia: A Journey Through the Yeltsin Era’ were used as passwords.

Safronov, who previously worked for Moscow newspapers Kommersant and Vedomosti, was arrested on July 7 on suspicion of high treason. He was accused of passing secret information to a NATO country later discovered to be the Czech Republic. The Federal Security Service claims he was recruited in 2012 and, five years later, passed on information about weapons supplies to foreign countries.

Safronov maintains his innocence, and believes that the charges are in response to his journalism. While working for the newspapers, he focused on reporting about Russia’s military-industrial complex. Earlier this year, he joined Roscosmos.

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