MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) — Moscow continues its efforts to locate Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin, who went missing in Ukraine more than two weeks ago, the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement Thursday.
“We still seek explanations about his fate from the Ukrainian authorities and press his immediate release,” Russian Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law Konstantin Dolgov said in the statement.
The ministry is determined that “all the actions preventing journalists from accomplishing their professional duties, even more so threatening their lives and health, should be ended.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it had no information about Stenin, who was covering clashes between Kiev-led forces and independence supporters in Donetsk, Slaviansk and other eastern Ukrainian cities.
The US State Department said late Wednesday that it had no information about Stenin’s whereabouts, just as the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council.
Stenin went missing on August 5 while working in eastern Ukraine. Earlier this month, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with Baltkom radio that security forces had arrested Stenin on charges of “assisting terrorists.”
Later Herashchenko claimed he was misinterpreted, saying he only assumed the photographer had been detained but had no precise information.
A number of international organizations and press associations across the world, including OSCE, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in Argentina, the Mexican Press Club and many others condemned the abduction of Stenin and demanded his immediate release.
Moreover, several international campaigns to support the Rossiya Segodnya photographer were held internationally. On Tuesday, some 100 cars took part in a flash mob in Madrid. As part of the campaign, the participants put leaflets with the hashtag «#freeAndrew» on their cars. The vehicles with the leaflets are expected to drive around Madrid and its suburbs for two days.
