A reporter who escaped Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on independent media in Russia has been found dead following a suspicious fall from a window. Evgeny Safronov, 38, originally from Krasnoyarsk in Siberia, was discovered on Tuesday morning outside an apartment building in the Hauts-de-Seine suburb of Paris. French authorities confirmed his fall and have launched an investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding his death.
Prior to his demise, Safronov had reported receiving death threats and experiencing a cyberattack. He informed friends that his phone had been compromised and his accounts had been breached. He expressed concerns about his devices being hacked, his social media accounts being stolen, and his communications being intercepted by hackers.
Safronov, who previously worked for Open Media, a Russian-language media organization founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, fled Russia in 2021 after Open Media was labeled a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities. Throughout his career, Safronov covered stories on the suppression of journalists, legal cases connected to protests involving Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, and the tightening restrictions on freedom of speech during Putin’s tenure.
After leaving Russia, Safronov resided in India and Turkey before obtaining a French visa and relocating to Paris approximately six months ago. Concerns about surveillance and intimidation were expressed by him to a fellow Russian journalist in Paris, although it remains uncertain whether these fears were based on genuine threats or heightened distress.
Investigators discovered a chair placed near the window inside Safronov’s apartment, along with a stash of medication in the trash. Letters written in Russian were also found at the scene. His Russian roommate, present during the incident, was too shocked to provide an explanation and was subsequently taken to the hospital under police supervision.
Authorities indicated that Safronov could have been a target of Russian threats, but emphasized that it is premature to ascertain the cause of death. Notably, numerous prominent Russian figures, including oligarchs, officials, and critics of Vladimir Putin, have died in unexplained falls from heights since the commencement of the Ukraine invasion in February 2022, leading to the term ‘Sudden Russian Death Syndrome’ being coined.
Recent years have witnessed the deaths of Artur Pryakhin, the former head of Russia’s anti-monopoly regulator, and Andrey Badalov, vice president of state-owned oil company Transneft, who both perished in falls from windows in Moscow.
