BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

06/03/2007

Russian Reporter Probed Iran Arms Sales Before Death

By Michael Heath and Henry Meyer

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- Russian reporter Ivan Safronov was investigating state plans to sell advanced weapons to Iran and Syria when he fell to his death from a window in his Moscow apartment building March 2, his newspaper Kommersant said.

Safronov, a 51-year-old former colonel in the military, met with unidentified people at an international arms show in the United Arab Emirates last month and confirmed Russian plans to sell fighter jets and missile systems via neighboring Belarus to avoid being accused by the U.S. of arming rogue nations, Kommersant editors said in today's edition.

Kommersant's deputy editor, Ilya Bulavinov, said Safronov was unable to write the story when he returned to Moscow Feb. 24 because of severe stomach pain. On Feb. 27, he attended a news conference by the head of the Federal Service of Military and Technical Cooperation, Mikhail Dmitriev, who announced that Russian arms exports in 2006 rose to a record $6.5 billion.

The Russian Defense Ministry referred all questions on the arms sales to Rosboronexport, the state arms exporter. Alexander Uzhanov, a spokesman for Rosoboronexport, which Kommersant didn't mention by name, declined to comment on the report. The U.S. imposed sanctions on Rosoboronexport twice last year, accusing the agency of breaking U.S. laws on trading with Iran.

After Dmitriev's press conference, Safronov returned home and called his editors to say he was still ill and would dictate his story on the planned sale of S-300V anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran and Su-30 fighter jets to Syria by telephone. He never rang back, according to Kommersant.

`Incitement'

Three days later, he fell from a window in the stairwell between the fourth and fifth stories of his building. Authorities initially treated the death as a suicide, though yesterday the Prosecutor General's Office said it was investigating possible ``incitement to suicide.''

``Too many critical journalists have died in the line of duty in Russia,'' said Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. ``Given this terrible record, Safronov's sensitive beat, and the questions surrounding his death, we call on Moscow authorities to thoroughly investigate every lead, including foul play,'' Simon said on the committee's Web site.

Russia is the third-deadliest country in the world for journalists, behind Iraq and Algeria, the committee said in October, after investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in the elevator of her apartment building in Moscow. Forty-two journalists have been killed in Russia since 1992, many of them in contract-style killings that have never been solved, the committee said then.

`Not Suicide'

``It's clearly not a suicide,'' Igor Yakovenko, head of the Russian Union of Journalists, told Ekho Moskvy radio, saying that Safronov's death was ``highly likely'' to be related to his reporting. The union will mount its own investigation, he said.

Safronov's reporting was monitored by the main successor agency to the Soviet KGB, the FSB, which tried several times to censor his stories on the ground of protecting state secrets, Kommersant said. Several criminal cases against Safronov were opened, though he was never charged.

``Arms deals are controlled by the Russian special services; without their knowledge, nothing can happen,'' said Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based independent defense analyst who has written articles critical of the military. ``The arms trade is the most corrupt in Russia. These contracts always generate illegal money and you can kill for that.''

Belarus is ``always used'' as a conduit for ``gray sales,'' Felgenhauer said in a telephone interview.

U.S. Condemnation

In January 2005, Safronov reported Russian plans to sell Iskander rockets to Syria, a story that prompted condemnation from the U.S. and Israel, which objected to the sale because the weapons could hit any part of Israel.

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Safranov's report during a trip to Israel three months later, saying Russian producers were in talks to supply Iskander-E rockets to Syria. Putin said he had personally intervened to stop the sale.

Safronov ``had connections in the military and broke stories that other journalists couldn't get,'' Felgenhauer said. ``He was a thorn in the military's side. I'm next in the firing line.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Michael Heath in Moscow

Source:

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aPgY0rhZrpRA&refer=europe