Russian state prosecutors have requested a 24-year prison sentence for former journalist Ivan Safronov in his trial for treason, state news agency TASS quoted Moscow City Court as saying.

Safronov covered military affairs for the Vedomosti and Kommersant newspapers before becoming an aide to the head of Russia's space agency two months before his arrest in July 2020.

He denies accusations of passing military secrets about Russian arms sales in the Middle East and Africa to Czechia, a NATO member, while he worked as a reporter in 2017, calling them "a complete travesty of justice and common sense."

Safronov has said state investigators pointed to his acquaintance with a Czech journalist he met in Moscow in 2010, who later set up a website which Safronov said he contributed towards, using information entirely based on open sources.

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Safronov's detention sent a chill through Russia's media landscape, where controls were already strict and have been tightened further since Russia's military incursion into Ukraine in February.

Independent media outlets including the Novaya Gazeta newspaper and Dozhd independent TV channel have fled the country, resuming operations abroad.

On Monday, opposition politician Leonid Gozman was arrested under a law passed last year banning comparisons between Nazism and Communism, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 days in prison, Russian news agencies said.

OVD-Info, a site which collates information on detained people and provides legal support, said he was arrested for a 2020 social media post in which he said Stalin was worse than Hitler.

Separately, Swiss police briefly detained three members of the Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot after they spray-painted a slogan against the war in Ukraine.

Police in Bern canton identified them only as Russian nationals, but the Blick newspaper said they were Masha Alekhina, Lucy Stein and Taso Pletner.  

Pussy Riot, famous for their opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin and their provocative concerts, are currently on a European tour.