MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia expects Ukraine to take steps to facilitate the return of International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin #freeAndrew and hopes for a positive outcome of the situation, Konstantin Dolgov, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s special representative for human rights, said Monday.
“We urge Ukrainian authorities to take specific steps, as I have just said, and hope for a positive outcome. Surely, we hope that Andrei will return home safe and sound,” Dolgov said in an interview with the Kommersant FM radio station.
“As far as I know, there is no new information, and we continue to urge Ukrainian authorities to interfere with the situation in order to clarify what happened to our journalist and to release him immediately,” he said. “It is unacceptable to disrupt the freedom of speech in such a way and hinder the work of journalists. The fact that Andrei Stenin’s fate is still unknown, neither to us, nor to his family, friends or colleagues, is absolutely outrageous,” Dolgov said in the interview.
Photojournalist Andrei Stenin went missing in eastern Ukraine on August 5. On August 9, Rossiya Segodnya filed a request with the Ukrainian Interior Ministry to take action in order to locate Stenin, with the ministry agreeing to look into the case.
On August 12, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with Baltkom radio that Ukrainian security forces had arrested Stenin on charges of assisting terrorists, but the statement has not been commented on by Kiev.
A number of events in support of the photographer have taken place around the world urging his release. His current whereabouts to this day remain unknown, as he appears on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list.
Please support Andrei Stenin’s release by sharing the hashtag #FreeAndrew via the social networks. Andrei is a professional war photographer who has reported from the most dangerous war zones in the world. You can view Andrei’s pictures from Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Libya here and his most recent shots from eastern Ukraine here.
