Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he "does not undertake to judge" how fair the sentence received by journalist Ivan Safronov is, and that "it can be appealed." His words are quoted by RIA Novosti.
“I don’t know the details, but I know that he earned money not only by his journalistic activities, but by collecting materials and handing them over to one of the Western intelligence services,” Putin said.
According to the president, counterintelligence followed Safronov for several years, "sitting on the channels of his communication with those who paid him for this closed, secret information," and the court "considered this proven."
Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the journalist's sentence very harsh. He noted that if Safronov decides to file a petition for pardon with the president, he will have to fully admit his guilt. However, there is no such provision in the law.
Former Kommersant journalist and former adviser to the head of Roscosmos Ivan Safronov was sentenced to 22 years in a strict regime colony, as well as a fine of 500 thousand rubles and two years of restriction of freedom after his release in the case of “transferring classified information” about the Russian Armed Forces. Now Safronov is 32 years old. The accusation, as the publication "Project" found out, does not withstand any criticism. It is based only on conjectures: none of the “witnesses” knows anything about the “crimes” of the journalist, almost all the information that he allegedly transmitted and which is considered “state secret” is in the public domain.