Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies and a member of the public council under the Russian Ministry of Defense, who on the air of the RBC program divulged information about the presence of Iranian drones in Russia and subsequently recanted his words, turned out to be one of the key witnesses for the prosecution in the case of Ivan Safronov, a journalist who received 22 years in a strict regime colony in the case of "transfer of secret information" about the Russian Armed Forces and disclosure of "state secrets". This drew the attention of the "First Department".
The project notes that Pukhov called Safronov "an incompetent journalist." Pukhov also stated that even he, not admitted to state secrets, understands that Safronov's texts contain some secret data. But during the court session, it turned out that the information that the journalist used in the notes was taken from texts that had previously been published in the Arms Export magazine headed by Pukhov. At the same time, both Pukhov and the FSB experts considered these data to be classified information in the case of Safronov's texts.
In October, Pukhov, on the air of the RBC program, commented on the information about Iranian drones: “This is a classic of stories – there is an ass, but there is no word, we all know that they are Iranian, but the authorities do not recognize it.” Officially, the Russian authorities do deny that they have purchased drones from Iran. Later, in an interview with Rise, he stated that he did not remember saying this:
“I don’t remember saying that, probably, this is some kind of production. Perhaps it was, or perhaps it wasn't. I don't remember, unfortunately. It was a long time ago. After covid, it’s bad with the brain.”
There is no issue of October 19 on the RBC website, The Insider found it in the cache of a search engine.
Russia regularly uses drones to bombard Ukrainian territories. So, on October 17, Kiev was subjected to a massive attack by kamikaze drones, several residential buildings were damaged. In September, Geran-2 drones attacked Odessa several times. On October 19, the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed that they had already shot down 223 kamikaze drones (Iranian loitering Shahed-136 ammunition, disguised as drones with the Russian name "Geran-2").
The Russian Federation produces its own kamikaze drones "Cube", but during the war in Ukraine decided to purchase a batch of Iranian drones. Both sides deny any deal. Shahed-136 is disguised as a Geran-2 drone, which is also confirmed in pro-Russian Telegram channels. According to them, kamikaze drones could be assembled under an Iranian license.
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.