MOSCOW:
The Russian Interior Ministry has placed six foreign journalists on its wanted list for illegally crossing the Russian border to report in the Kursk region after a Ukrainian cross-border incursion, the TASS news agency reported on Thursday.
Russia’s FSB security service announced last month that it had opened criminal proceedings against several journalists, including a British correspondent for CNN, a reporter for Deutsche Welle, a journalist for Italian public broadcaster RAI and three Ukrainians working for the TV channel 1+1. channel.
The journalists’ employers had previously said their trips to Kursk were legitimate.
The Italian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian ambassador to Rome to express “surprise at Moscow’s singular decision” against RAI journalist Stefania Battistini, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on the network social
Ukrainian forces launched their incursion on August 6 and remain inside Russia despite a Russian counter-offensive that has pushed them back in places.