MOSCOW — The death of a reporter investigating Russian arms deals with Iran and Syria was probably a murder, the head of the SJR journalists organization said.
Russia's leading business daily Kommersant asserted that a reporter who
had been investigating Moscow's defense exports to Iran and Syria was
killed. Kommersant said the reporter, former Col. Ivan Safronov, who fell
from his apartment window to his death, disclosed the Russian sale of
advanced Su-30 fighter-jets to Syria and S-300PMU-1 anti-aircraft systems to
Iran, Middle East Newsline reported.
"From what we know already it is clear it was not suicide," Russia's SJR
journalist union secretary-general Igor Yakovenko said. "The chances that it
was a murder linked to the exercise of his profession are very high."
On March 5, the Russian prosecutor's office launched an investigation
into Safronov's death on March 2. In a statement, the office termed the
probable cause of death "incitement to suicide." An autopsy did not find any
drugs or alcohol in Safronov, scheduled to be buried on Wednesday.
Safronov was said to have discovered the Iranian and Syrian arms deals
during the IDEX-2007 defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi in late February. On
Tuesday, Kommersant reported that Safronov telephoned the newspaper from the
United Arab Emirates and said he had obtained "irrefutable confirmation" of
contracts signed by Iran and Syria for the purchase of the Russian-origin
Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft system, MiG-29SMT fighter-jet and Iskander-E
long-range rockets. The Pantsir-S1 was developed for and sold to the United
Arab Emirates.
But Kommersant quoted Safronov as saying he could not immediately
publish the disclosures. He said he had been warned that he would prosecuted
on previous charges of divulging state secrets.
"He told colleagues that he had found information that more contracts
had been signed between Russia and Syria for the sale of MiG-29 jets and
Pantsir-S1 and Iskander-E missiles," Kommersant said. "He added that he
would not write about those deals, however, because he had been warned that
doing so would cause an international scandal and the [Russian security
service] FSB would made charges against him of revealing state secrets
stick."
"The same day, [Feb. 27] Safronov called Kommersant and said that he
would dictate his story about arms deliveries through Belarus over the
telephone," the newspaper added. "He did not do so, however."
Safronov, the latest in a series of dissidents whose deaths were
attributed to the Putin regime, was said to have been investigating a report
by the London-based Jane's Defence Weekly. In May 2006, Jane's reported the
sale of the S-300PMU-1 to Belarus, which would relay the systems to Iran.
The Russian Defense Ministry had denied the report.
On March 2, Israeli military sources reported that Syria concluded a $1
billion weapons deal with Russia that included the procurement of the
S-300PMU as well as anti-tank guided missiles from Moscow. The sources said
the first components of the strategic air defense system would arrive in
Syria in 2007.
