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Influential Italian journalist to leave for Moscow after being expelled from Estonia

Giulietto Chiesa arrived in Tallinn early on Monday to take part in a conference dedicated to the relations between Russia and Europe but was arrested in his hotel with no reasons given
Giulietto Chiesa  AP Photo/Sandro Pace
Giulietto Chiesa
© AP Photo/Sandro Pace

ROME, December 16. /TASS/. Authoritative Italian journalist and politician Giulietto Chiesa, who has been expelled from Estonia, told TASS on Tuesday he planned to go to Moscow.

He is currently staying at the Italian embassy in Tallinn and will take a Moscow-bound train in the evening. “My book Instead of Catastrophe will be presented in Moscow,” he told TASS over the phone. His original plans included a trip to Russia after a conference in Tallinn.

Chiesa arrived in the Estonian capital city Tallinn early on Monday to take part in a conference dedicated to the relations between Russia and Europe but was arrested in his hotel with no reasons given. The local media said the Italian journalists and former member of the European Parliament, who openly criticizes the policy of NATO’s eastwards expansion conducted by the United States and some European countries, particularly the Baltic republic, had been put on a blacklist of personae non grata.

Chisea told TASS the Estonian authorities had not yet explained any reasons for his arrest that lasted for several hours. He was ordered to Estonia as an expelled person. “No one has explained me anything officially. Obviously, they did not want me to speak at the conference,” he said.

Chiesa spent many years in Russia and witnessed the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the birth of new Russia. He visits Russian quite frequently and now he is among the few in Europe who openly speaks about what is going on in Ukraine and where the Ukrainian crisis is rooted in. Chiesa organizes conferences and seminars where he condemns the United States’ policy and warns against one-polar world. The latest such conference took place on December 12 at the national parliament and involved international experts, political observers, commentators.

On December 13, Chiesa organized a roundtable meeting within the framework of the Nobel Peace Prize Winner summit in Rome. The meeting was attended by Federica Mogherini, European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.

Apart from that, Chiesa has launched his own information project aiming to present alternative vision of the developments in eastern Ukraine in contrast to the official European media.