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Journalist found dead

Moscow: A senior Russian journalist who embarrassed the country's military establishment with a series of exclusive stories has been found dead outside his flat in mysterious circumstances. The body of Ivan Safronov, 51-year-old defence correspondent for the newspaper Kommersant, was discovered on Friday. He apparently fell from a fifth-floor window. Though prosecutors say they suspect Mr. Safranov committed suicide, his colleagues insisted that he had no reason to kill himself. They said he was the latest in a long line of Russian journalists to die in unexplained circumstances. ``Nobody believes he could have committed suicide. He had no reason to kill himself,'' his colleague Sergei Dupin said. Mr. Safranov — a father of two — had a happy family life and a successful career, he said. Several newspapers pointed to Mr. Safranov's track record of breaking stories about Russia's nuclear programme. Last December, he revealed that the experimental Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, hailed by President Vladimir Putin as the basis for Russia's future nuclear might, did not work.His exclusive infuriated military commanders, who continue to deny problems with the missile.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2007

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