E&P/AP: Russian Reporter Dies in Fall From Window, Some Suspect Foul Play

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: Russian Reporter Dies in Fall From Window, Some Suspect Foul Play
Published: March 05, 2007

MOSCOW A military correspondent for Russia’s top business daily has died after falling out of a window, and some media alleged Monday that he might have been killed for his critical reporting.

Ivan Safronov, the military affairs writer for Kommersant, died Friday after falling from a fifth-story window in the stairwell of his apartment building in Moscow, officials said. His body was found by neighbors shortly after the fall.

With prosecutors investigating the death, Kommersant and some other media suggested foul play.

“The suicide theory has become dominant in the investigation, but all those who knew Ivan Safronov categorically reject it,” Kommersant said in an article Monday....

***

Safronov, who had served as a colonel in the Russian Space Forces before joining Kommersant in 1997, frequently angered the authorities with his critical reporting. He was repeatedly questioned by the Federal Security Service, the main KGB successor, which suspected him of divulging state secrets....

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003553680

[KoKo]

1. What IS IT that these Russian Reporters who are being killed are trying to Report?

It must be huge. Something "international?" Isn't Pooty Poot Bush's buddy?

[DeepModem Mom]

6. In this case, it appears it could be a missile failure --

"Last December, Safronov angered the authorities when he was the first to report the third consecutive launch failure of the new Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, which President Vladimir Putin hailed as a basis of the nation’s nuclear might for years to come. The authorities never acknowledged the launch failure."

[hedgehog]

2. Defenestration is a verb associated with Eastern European

and Russian politics.

[Amused Musings]

18. I am reminded of

Jan Masaryk, the last gasp of a free Czechoslovakia who in 1948 also "committed suicide" by "jumping" out of a window around this time in March.

The Russian winter is cold and does not like to concede to spring.

[Roland99]

3. Why would someone commit suicide jumping out of a 5th story stairwell window??

:wtf:

[daleo]

11. Why wouldn't they? Jumping from a height is fairly common.

If you are saying he should have found a higher window to ensure death, the same claim could be made about any likely murderers (i.e. they should have found a higher window).

An accident from a stairwell seems doubtful.

[Roland99]

12. That's what I meant. A *stairwell* window? Why not his own? The roof?

A gun? Pills? Slitting wrists?

[daleo]

15. I understand your objection now

Yes, a stairwell is an odd choice for a suicide, and an unlikely place for an accident.

[MidwestTransplant]

4. Bush looked in to Putin's soul and liked what he saw....figures.

[damntexdem]

5. Nope, no fowl play here. It was simply gravity, followed by a strong impact, that killed him.

I don't see why conspiracy nuts want to focus on what may have impelled him out of the window. That's in the past -- just like what led up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Why focus on the past, on ancient history? Instead, do something constructive, like coming up with a plan to foil gravity.

[Thor_MN]

20. After all, it's just a theory - no one has seen "gravitons"

All that "science" crap is highly over-rated, all one really has to do is watch a talibangelist on TV, send in money, and do what the guy with the southern accent shouts. /:sarcasm:

[melody]

7. "They" poison and push, "we" mail anthrax and crash planes

Same tyrants, different tyrannies.

[peacetalksforall]

8. Follows another who was shot in a 'burglery' - wallet and briefcase

taken - two days ago?

[fed-up]

9. that's the 3rd (suspicious/timely) "fell from window" death in last few months- nt

[drm604]

10. I guess they used up the last of the polonium. n/t

[NobleCynic]

13. It's sad, but in Russia it is at the point

where if a reporter dies, you assume foul play until proven otherwise rather than the other way around.

[PSPS]

14. Rachel Maddow had more info about this

Maybe this was also in the full story.

Apparently, the guy lives on the third floor of the building, yet he "jumped" from a stairwell window on the fifth floor. OK. He was also fully dressed in a suit and hat.

It sounds more like he was running away from Putin's goons, they caught him and gave him the heave-ho.

[Psephos]

16. Foul play? Gee, ya think?????

The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that 13 Russian journalists have been murdered in contract-style killings since the beginning of 2006. That makes Russia No. 3 on the list of deadliest countries for journalists, after Iraq and Algeria.

Putin has spent considerable effort rolling back Russian reforms while installing an inner cabal of former secret police in his government. Maybe part of the reason this isn't understood well in the West is because so many of those who are trying to draw attention to it are being liquidated.

Peace.

[Shakespeare]

17. Putin is officially the scariest S.O.B. on the planet.

Yes, scarier even than Cheney.

[formercia]

19. A good reference:

Putin is a product of the GRU (Soviet Military intelligence). They are a tough bunch.

If you want to understand their mindset, I recommend a book called Inside the Aquarium by Victor Suvurov, a GRU officer and defector.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquarium_(Suvorov)

Aquarium (Suvorov)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aquarium (Russian title Аквариум) is a partly autobiographical description by Viktor Suvorov of the GRU (Soviet military intelligence directorate). The account starts in 1969, when Suvorov, as an ordinary tank company commander, is recruited into intelligence analysis by an up-and-coming Lieutenant Colonel. From there he transfers to Spetsnaz and, from there, into the GRU proper. A combination of circumstances lead to his eventual defection to the British.

The "Aquarium" of the title is the nickname given to GRU headquarters in Moscow by those who work there. "What sort of fish are there swimming there?" asks Suvorov of his boss when he learns about it. "There's only one kind there – piranhas."

Suvorov admits that some details of his career have been altered; for example, he portrays himself as being posted to Austria when, in fact, he was in Switzerland. The reason given is that this allowed him to hide his identity at a time when the Soviet Union still existed and there was the possibility of retaliation against friends and relatives.

Publication details

* Original English translation: Hamish Hamilton, 1985; ISBN 0-241-11545-0
* United States publication (as Inside the Aquarium): MacMillan, 1985; ISBN 0-02-615490-0

[Eugene]

21. AP: Russia Journalist Worked on Weapons Story

Russia Journalist Worked on Weapons Story


Tuesday March 6, 2007 6:16 PM

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) - A journalist who fell to his death from a fifth-story window had received
threats while gathering material for a report claiming Russia planned to provide sophisticated
weapons to Syria and Iran, his newspaper said Tuesday.

Prosecutors have opened an inquest into the death of Ivan Safronov, a military affairs writer
for the daily Kommersant who died Friday in what some media said could have been murder.

Kommersant reported that Safronov told his editors he would write a story about Russian plans
to sell weapons to Iran and Syria via Belarus, but they said he had not yet submitted the article.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6461401,00.html

Too many dead bodies in too short a time.