Moscow, December 23 – Alexander Chaban, Deputy Head of the Investigation Department of the FSB, revealed in a special report on Russia 24 channel that former advisor to the head of Roscosmos, Ivan Safronov, had been passing secret information to German intelligence about the Russian military operation in Syria and to Czech Republic about military satellites. According to the investigation, Safronov first met with German citizen Demuri Voronin at the end of 2015. Voronin introduced himself as the head of a consulting company. “The information regarding the ground operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Syrian Arab Republic. This information was classified at that time. It was later declassified. But at that time it was absolutely classified information,” Chaban said. As per Chaban, Safronov quickly completed the task by gathering all the necessary information. Chaban noted that Safronov received a “modest reward” of around $200 for his work. “Voronin calculated the rates for gathering information based on the number of pages, the amount of text,” he added, noting that Safronov was satisfied with this amount as he gained new contacts. In the end, the accused completed about seven such assignments, Chaban clarified. However, they were not the only ones. The former advisor to the head of Roscosmos also collaborated with Czech citizen Martin Larish. “The first acquaintance with the representative of Czech intelligence took place in 2012. It was an innocent meeting between two colleagues. He didn’t have any assignments at that time. It was a period of recruitment, building relationships. Closer to 2013, the first offers and tasks appeared,” Chaban said. According to him, this refers to the Department of External Relations and Information – an external intelligence agency of the Czech Republic, working not only for the government of its own country, but also for NATO. He added that this is what the intelligence services of all alliance members do. As a result, Safronov provided Larish with data on the satellite grouping working in the interests of GRU. In addition, he collected information about the deliveries of the S-300 and “Pantsir-S1” complexes to Syria: deadlines, quantities, and locations. Larish also asked to find out in which countries the military exercises “Brotherhood in Arms – 2019” would take place, gather information about military bases in Central Asia, and the capabilities of the Russian railway troops (data on bases and the number of wagons), as summarized in the report. Safronov, who dealt with military and space issues in the newspapers “Vedomosti” and “Kommersant” before joining Roscosmos, was detained on July 7, 2020. The FSB reported that he was charged with passing classified information about Russian military-technical cooperation and defense to one of the NATO intelligence agencies. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the accused systematically transmitted the collected data to representatives of foreign intelligence agencies, realizing that this information could be used by member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance against Russia’s security. The former journalist disagrees with any of the charges and considers his persecution unlawful.
