Hromadskie.tv journalists released
Kremlin-backed militants calling themselves the Luhansk People’s Republic have released Hromadskie.tv journalist Nastya [Anastasia] Stanko and cameraman Illya Bezkorovainy.
Valery Bolotov, head of the self-proclaimed LPR announced earlier that the release was imminent. It was then broadcast live on Russian TV channel LifeNews.
Hromadskie.tv reports that Russian journalists broadcasting the release hurled questions at Stanko and Bezkorovainy, however both refused to speak with members of the Russian media.
An earlier brief report on the LifeNews website should explain their refusal. The title is: “The detained Hromadskie.tv journalists were given tea and cake”.
The first ‘information’ provided is that “When the reporters were searched a notebook was found with detailed information about the position of LPR checkpoints, the insurgents’ commanders and their means of contact.”
The insurgents are further quoted as claimed that they received information about the arrival of the Hromadskie.tv journalist who had, they alleged, paid money to be taken around the checkpoints. “The civilian population reported this after which the journalists were detained. It transpired that they did not have accreditation, however there was a lot of information about LPR checkpoints in their notebooks, , the insurgents’ commanders and their means of contact.”
This same source claims that the journalists are fine but that they don’t want to give interviews. “According to head of the LPR Valery Bolotov, the detainees drank tea and ate cake unlike the LifeNews journalist Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko when they were help captive by the Ukrainian enforcement bodies in May 2014”.
The report ends with the information that Hromadskie announced that the film crew had been taken captive on June 30 while carrying out their professional duties.
Nastya Stanko has spoken with colleagues at Hromadskie.tv by telephone and told them that neither she nor Bezkorovainy was beaten or tortured, only threatened.