Russian Journalist Death: Suicide or Murder?

Email

Print

Share

March 07, 2007 12:05 PM

A Russian reporter who mysteriously fell to his death in Moscow was on the verge of publishing a story about the Kremlin selling arms to Iran and Syria, according to new reports from the newspaper he worked for, the Kommersant.

The newspaper says Ivan Safronov was preparing an in-depth look at the upcoming sale by the Russian government and had even met with sources at an international arms show last month in the United Arab Emirates to confirm the story when he plunged to his death from the 5th floor of his apartment building last week.

Safronov is the 14th journalist to die under suspicious circumstances in the six years since President Vladimir Putin has been in power, according to statistics compiled by the group Committee to Protect Journalists.

Nina Ognianova, the group's program coordinator for Europe and Central Asia, says Russia is the third most deadly place to be a journalist after Iraq and Algeria. "There have been at least 13 contract-style killings of journalists in Russia," she says. "And only three cases have gone to trial with no convictions. No masterminds have been caught at all."

Russian authorities are claiming Safronov most likely committed suicide, something Pavel Felgenhauer, a journalist in Russia who also reports on military affairs, doubts.  He saw Safronov just days before he died and says there was nothing to indicate he was planning to kill himself.

Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage.

Felgenhauer says given the explosive nature of what Safronov was reporting it's likely someone wanted him silenced. "Those who were involved could have been Russian military intelligence people who have been involved in a number of murders inside Russia and political murders outside of our country," says Felgenhauer. "They could have been the actual hit men, and well, those who actually would've been losing money if these deals faltered."

Russian authorities are continuing their investigation, and Kommersant staff are cooperating fully.

In an interview on Russian radio, the deputy chief editor, Ilya Bulavinov, said the paper wasn't excluding death by violence either. "We have no basis to believe that he had a motive for suicide, but at the same time we cannot exclude the possibility of a violent death." 

But Bulavinov also warned the media not to jump to any conclusions. "The whole hysteria has arisen in Western circles, looks very much like speculation, including the drawing of parallels with the murder of Litvinenko, Politkovskaya and so on," he said. "Ivan Safronov was not a political figure; he was not a fighter against the regime."

But Felgenhauer says in the current political climate, you don't have to be a known rabble-rouser to become a target. "It's a very risky job being an independent journalist in Moscow," he says. "You could get killed or beaten up or imprisoned."