A court in Moscow on Monday found a former journalist guilty of treason and sentenced him to 22 years in a maximum security prison, concluding a trial that has been widely seen as politically motivated.
The sentence handed to Ivan Safronov is among the harshest moves against Russian independent journalists and Kremlin critics, who have faced mounting pressure in recent years. Safronov worked as a defense and space reporter for Kommersant newspaper for a decade, before becoming an adviser to the head of the Russian space corporation Roscosmos.
