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Moscow to demand access to detained Russian journalists in Kiev — Lavrov

Moscow will demand access to journalists of Russian news agency RIA Novosti who were detained in Kiev on May 15

© Ruslan Shamukov/TASS

MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS/. Moscow will demand access to journalists of Russian news agency RIA Novosti who were detained in Kiev on Tuesday, Acting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters.

"Certainly, we are dealing with this situation, we will demand access to our citizens," Lavrov said after talks with his Philippine counterpart Alan Peter Cayetano.

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Kremlin vows to defend Russian media interests in Ukraine

He said the detention of Russian journalists came as no surprise. "This is not the first situation when Ukrainian authorities either turn a blind eye to the rampage of young neo-Nazi radicals who try to stonewall the work of Russian journalists in Ukraine or limit their activity themselves as was the case this time," Lavrov noted.

Lavrov has called on the United States and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to respond to Kiev’s steps against Russian journalists. "We have several times drawn the attention of our Western colleagues both in the framework of the OSCE and the Council of Europe that they are very calm on such tricks of their proteges in Kiev," he said. "I think that the US and European participants of the OSCE are obliged to speak out without any double standards."

"We are waiting for the principled statements of OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media [Harlem] Desir," Lavrov said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) conducted searches at the Kiev office of Russian news agency RIA Novosti, a spokeswoman for the SBU, Elena Gitlyanskaya said. She also confirmed that the chief of the news agency’s office, Kirill Vyshinsky, was detained. The SBU issued a statement announcing that "a network of media structures, which Moscow used for carrying out a hybrid war" against Kiev has been uncovered.

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