Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has raised the case of the jailed head of RIA Novosti Ukraine news portal, Kirill Vyshinsky, with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini during their meeting in Milan on the sidelines of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council, Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich told Sputnik on Thursday.
MILAN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2018) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has raised the case of the jailed head of RIA Novosti Ukraine news portal, Kirill Vyshinsky, with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini during their meeting in Milan on the sidelines of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Ministerial Council, Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Alexander Lukashevich told Sputnik on Thursday."Lavrov at meetings, wherever possible, and also with Mogherini, said that it is not even double standards ... On the journalists, on Vyshinsky, he [Lavrov] specifically said, 'detained for professional work [by Kiev], prolonging the arrest,' despite the appeals of the OSCE representative on freedom of the media [Harlem Desir] to stop this nonsense and to solve the issue in a legal way," Lukashevich said.
The Russian side at each Permanent Council of the OSCE raises the issue of Vyshinsky's arrest in Ukraine, the Russian diplomat added.
"The OSCE has a unique Institute for Media Freedom which should monitor this situation, influence it but here again, the double standards of Desir ... In a situation with [Ukrainian journalist Roman] Sushchenko and other Ukrainians whom he considers journalists, he demands immediate unconditional release. In the situation with Vyshinsky, he calls for the inclusion of legal mechanisms that 'you cannot keep him too long,' 'solve the problem by legal means,'" Lukashevich stressed.
Vyshinsky was arrested in Kiev in May on suspicion of supporting breakaway eastern provinces. He was transferred to the Ukrainian city of Kherson in the country's south and taken into custody on a court order, which has since been extended twice until December 28.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual Q&A session in June that Vyshinsky had been arrested by Ukrainian authorities for his professional activities, in what he called an unacceptable move. The OSCE secretary general, Thomas Greminger, told Sputnik that the organization's media watchdog would continue to closely follow the case.
