RIA Novosti Photojournalist Pitalev Released In Belarus - Russian Ambassador

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th August, 2020) RIA Novosti photojournalist Ilya Pitalev has been released from a pre-trial detention center in the Belarusian city of Zhodino, Russian Ambassador to Minsk Dmitry Mezentsev said on Tuesday.

"Maksim Solopov, who is engaged in journalistic activities and is associated with Meduza, and Ilya Pitalev from RIA Novosti, excellent photo artist, were released," the ambassador told the Rossiya 24 broadcaster.

Mezentsev predicts that all previously detained Russian journalists will be released on Tuesday evening.

"Regional journalist Nikita Telezhenko is also now going to the embassy with our diplomats, and we are waiting for the earliest completion of the procedures, the result of which will be that Artem Vyzhenkov and Igor Rogov will leave the Minsk police department, where they have in the past few hours. And, fortunately, we have no information that any of the people associated with journalistic activities are in the police units," Mezentsev said.