MOSCOW, September 3 (RIA Novosti) -Kiev’s simulated attempts to find Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin and exchange him for Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko when he was already dead, were unscrupulous, Russian Union of Journalists head Vsevolod Bogdanov said Wednesday.
“I feel [as if I’ve been] covered in mud. Because all the provocations about the possible exchange of our journalist [Stenin] for the Ukrainian pilot [Nadezhda Savchenko] detained by our Special Services, was conducted by very unscrupulous people. When sympathy and willingness to help is simulated, but in reality it all ends not even in a bad, but in a very tragic way,” Bogdanov said, expressing condolences to Stenin’s family.
Bogdanov expressed displeasure with Kiev’s manner of leading a dialogue on freeing Russian journalists detained in Ukraine. He also added that on September 7 the International Day of Journalists’ Solidarity is observed and during this time, Stenin’s colleagues will cherish their memories of him and will remember other deceased journalists.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rossiya Segodnya Director General Dmitry Kiselev said that Russian investigators confirmed that Stenin was among those killed during an attack on a convoy of at least 10 vehicles carrying civilians in early August near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Stenin went missing in eastern Ukraine on August 5. Sources said that the Ukrainian military could have detained the journalist, but Kiev has never officially confirmed the information.
