Human Rights Council head urges Ukraine to set free Russian reporter
Ukrainian authorities should release Russian journalist Andrei Kiselyov, who has been taken into custody in Kyiv, head of the Russian president's Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov said.
"The Council is seriously concerned about this situation; it requests that the Ukrainian authorities conduct an immediate inquiry, that they release [the reporter], apologize and provide him with the required medical assistance," Fedotov said at a Council meeting on Thursday.
In his words, those responsible for the detention of the journalists must be punished.
Reports on the detention of Lenta.ru online edition journalist Andrei Kiselyov in Kyiv, where clashes between the opposition and the police had been on for several days, were posted on Thursday.
According to a report posted on the Lenta.ru homepage, Kiselyov was covering the disturbances in the Ukrainian capital city.
The report said he was seized by officers of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's Berkut special purpose unit in the morning of January 23. It also said Kiselyov was beaten in the course of his detention.