Head of the RIA Novosti Ukraine portal Kirill Vyshinsky, who is in custody in Ukraine, believes that his arrest is Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's attempt to raise public support ahead of the presidential election
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2019) Head of the RIA Novosti Ukraine portal Kirill Vyshinsky, who is in custody in Ukraine, believes that his arrest is Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's attempt to raise public support ahead of the presidential election."My detention and arrest represent an attempt by the Ukrainian authorities to bolster the declining popularity of President [Petro] Poroshenko in this election year. How? First, my arrest was used to stoke another scandal involving a story about "terrible Russian propaganda." I'm a journalist, a citizen of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and my arrest can be explained as part of the fight against 'Russian propaganda.' Second, from the very first hours of my detention, without a trial and even before pre-trial restrictions were set for me, high-ranking Ukrainian politicians started talking about the need to swap me for a Ukrainian convicted in the Russian Federation," Vyshinsky told independent Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett, according to their correspondence, published by the MPN news media outlet.
He pointed out that prisoner swaps were one of the most favorite PR topics for the current Ukrainian leadership.
"Swaps are a favorite PR topic of the current Ukrainian government, which, in the past five years, has been unable to accomplish anything to benefit the country's economy, achieve peace in Ukraine, or resolve the civil conflict in Donbas. This government did nothing to improve the well-being and safety of its citizens, so it was looking for other ways to score electoral points. Anti-Russian hysteria and PR around a prisoner swap is one such way," Vyshinsky said.
The journalist noted that all posts on the RIA Novosti Ukraine website, which became a pretext for his arrest, had been published in 2014 but no proceedings had been opened until 2018.
"The posts were made in the spring of 2014. According to the SBU [Ukrainian Security Service], they represented a threat to the national security of Ukraine, but they remembered them only in 2018! And this is despite the fact that the SBU and Ukraine's Ministry of Press and Information (another supervisory authority) have been regularly publishing lists of websites that were a 'threat to national information security,' while my website was never listed!! And then, in May 2018, I was arrested," Vyshinsky said.
The RIA Novosti portal head called the accusations of treason brought against him false and absurd.
"I believe that accusing me of treason is false and absurd. None of the posts they are using to incriminate me are under my byline. These texts were submitted by our contributors, who shared their point of view on the developments in Ukraine in the spring of 2014, when the referendum was held in Crimea, and everything was just getting started in Donbas. All these materials are from the Opinion and Point of View sections, and each of them is followed by a disclaimer that "the author's views do not necessarily represent those of the editorial board," he stressed.
Vyshinsky added that none of 15 "treasonous" texts included in the SBU files had been written by him.
The Russian journalist was detained in Kiev on May 15 on suspicion of supporting the breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine and treason. Given the charges, the journalist may face up to 15 years in prison.
On May 17, the Kherson court ruled to remand Vyshinsky in custody. The defense appealed the arrest, but the court dismissed the appeal. During a court hearing, Vyshinsky asked for help from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He also said that he would give up his Ukrainian citizenship.
Putin has said that Vyshinsky's arrest was politically motivated, adding that the incident demonstrated an unprecedented and unacceptable policy of Ukrainian authorities targeting journalists doing their jobs. The Russian Foreign Ministry has protested to Kiev, calling on the incumbent authorities to stop the crackdown on media.
Harlem Desir, the representative on freedom of the media at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has also expressed his concern over Ukraine's actions toward Vyshinsky and called for the journalist's release. Commenting on the situation, OSCE Secretary General Thomas Greminger has said that all OSCE member states should comply with international standards and avoid interfering in the media's work.
