The Russian parliament's upper house will continue seeking the release of RIA Novosti Ukraine portal Kirill Vyshinsky, who has been kept in Ukrainian prison on charges of treason, via all possible means until the journalist finally goes free, speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2019) The Russian parliament's upper house will continue seeking the release of RIA Novosti Ukraine portal Kirill Vyshinsky, who has been kept in Ukrainian prison on charges of treason, via all possible means until the journalist finally goes free, speaker Valentina Matviyenko said on Wednesday.
"Continue your efforts and through all channels seek the release of journalist Vyshinsky," Matviyenko said, addressing the chairman of the upper house's commission on information policy, Alexei Pushkov, at a parliamentary meeting.
She added that the upper house would remove the issue from its agenda only when the journalist was released.
Vyshinsky was detained in Kiev on May 15, 2018, on suspicion of supporting the breakaway republics of Donbas and treason. He faces up to 15 years in prison. Most recently, last week, a district court in Kiev suspended hearings in Vyshinsky's case until July 15 because newly appointed prosecutors claimed they had not had enough time to familiarize themselves with the case materials.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Vyshinsky's arrest is politically motivated and that the incident demonstrates an unprecedented and unacceptable policy of Ukrainian authorities targeting journalists doing their jobs.
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 his release, stressing that all OSCE members commit themselves to create the necessary conditions to allow journalists to work freely.
