Russia arrests Ukrainian journalist on spy charges
Print Edition
A UKRAINIAN journalist suspected of spying has been arrested, Russian intelligence agency FSB said yesterday.
In a statement, it claimed that Roman Sushchenko is an officer with the Ukrainian military intelligence who has been collecting information about the Russian armed forces.
The arrest comes amid an almost complete breakdown in relations between the two neighbors, triggered by Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
The reporter’s employer, Ukrinform, said Sushchenko had been working for it since 2002 and was based in Paris for the past couple of years. It said Sushchenko was in Moscow last week on holiday and disappeared on Friday before surfacing in a Moscow jail.
The FSB said Sushchenko, whom it referred to as a colonel, was “intentionally” collecting sensitive information about the Russian army and the National Guard and is expected to face charges of espionage.
“All the accusations of ‘spying’ against Roman Sushchenko, a journalist with an impeccable reputation spanning over many years who was accredited in one of the most influential European countries, can only be described as Russia’s yet another flagrant and unlawful act against Ukrainian nationals,” the Ukrinform news agency said in a statement.
Reports of the journalist’s arrest first leaked in the early hours of yesterday when a group of human rights activists on a routine inspection around the Lefortovo prison encountered a man in a prison cell who said he had been detained on suspicion of espionage.
A Russian state news television station showed images of a disheveled Sushchenko being led by masked men to an interrogation room.
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