Belarus is deporting two journalists from Radio Liberty's Russian-language service, who were detained in Minsk on Friday.

"The journalists from the Radio Liberty Russian service who were held in Minsk, Yulia Vishnevetskaya and Andrei Kiselyov, have been released from the Partizansky district police station and are being deported," the Radio Liberty Belarusian bureau reported.

Vishnevetskaya told the bureau that they were now traveling in a Russian Embassy vehicle to collect their belongings and after that will be driven to Smolensk. "Deportation with a five-year entry ban," she said.

The journalists had been held outside the entrance to the Tractor Plant while filming volunteers distributing leaflets among workers.

The editorial office said it had requested from the Belarusian Foreign Ministry official permission for the journalists' accreditation to work on the territory of the republic before Vishnevetskaya and Kiselyov left for Minsk.