ORENBURG, October 3. /TASS/. The detention in Moscow of Ukrainian citizen Roman Sushchenko is "ordinary work of special services" and is not an issue on the Kremlin’s agenda, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
"This is the ordinary work of special services. If I understand this right, this is a person who calls himself a journalist but he did not have accreditation that any foreign journalist should have - the accreditation of the Foreign Ministry," Peskov said.
No campaign against Ukrainian mass media
Peskov stressed Ukrainian mass media are operating in Russia on the same basis as everyone else, no campaign against them is underway, commenting on the detention of Roman Sushchenko.
"There are and can be no campaigns against Ukrainian or any other mass media operating in Russia. The activities of foreign mass media are regulated by a relevant law," he said.
He refuted allegations that Sushchenko’s detention may speak about restrictions on the work of the Ukrainian press in Russia.
Peskov stressed that foreign mass media enjoy equal rights as Russian. However they must fulfil the existing accreditation procedures. "These procedures must be implemented," he said.
"Ukrainian journalists are working in Moscow and our conversation is the best proof to that," Peskov said answering a question from Roman Tsimbalyuk, a correspondent of Ukraine’s UNIAN news agency.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) earlier said that Col. Sushchenko, a staff member of the main intelligence department of Ukraine’s defense ministry, was detained in Moscow on September 30 "while on a spy mission." Sushchenko collected secret information on Russia’s Armed Forces and the National Guard and the disclosure could have undermined Russia’s defense capabilities, it said.