Military correspondent Saponkov told about threats against him

On December 11, military correspondent Roman Saponkov told Izvestiya about death threats against him. According to the journalist, attackers have been intimidating his family and relatives of colleagues Aleksei Zhivoy and Roman Alyokhin since early November.

"Started writing the same contact in Telegram, someone signed as Igor R. Started saying that allegedly someone with us, some force tried to negotiate, tolerate us, but they will not do it anymore, they know everything about us and, accordingly, for our actions (by actions, you understand that refers to our activities in Telegram) will be responsible for our loved ones," he said.

The correspondent added that they were presented with a demand - to delete their channel in Telegram within five days. In parallel, the attackers began to write to their close people and threaten reprisals.

"Specifically [threaten] to kill, not just: 'we will do something', but specifically: 'you and your family, everyone will answer for the activities of your loved ones'," he emphasized.

The military correspondent noted that he and his colleagues have data on the alleged authors of the threats and are preparing an appeal on the matter. He assumed that they are inside Russia.

The journalists have already filed a statement with the police.

Earlier, on October 15, Svetlana Agibalova and Vladislav Remnev, who painted threatening symbols on the door of the apartment of Izvestia military correspondent Valentin Trushnin, as well as arranged burning wax candles and painted images on the floor, extended their arrest until April 1, 2025.

The incident took place in October 2023. Then near the door of the military correspondent 's apartment were found a drawing of a pentagram with a pig's head and candles placed nearby. Trushnin himself was not at home, he is on a business trip in Israel.

Criminal cases were initiated under Article 214 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Vandalism") and Article 119 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Threat of death"), because earlier subscribers from Ukrainian numbers had already sent threatening messages to the journalist. A case was also opened under part 3 of article 144 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Obstruction of the lawful professional activity of a journalist"). The attackers had their arrest extended several times.

Commenting on the incident, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the Kiev regime was preparing an assassination attempt on Trushnin. According to her, the Ukrainian security services used a traditional technique for them, using messengers to involve Russians, who sent threats to Trushnin for a fee.