MOSCOW, Moscow 17. /TASS/. Russia demands that the Ukrainian authorities immediately set free the editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency, Kirill Vyshinsky, and it urges its foreign partners to pay attention to the outrageous situation around him, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

"We demand an immediate release of Kirill Vyshinsky," it said in a commentary on a ruling by a court in the southern Ukraine city of Kherson to arrest the journalist for two months.

"We call on our foreign partners to pay attention in the final run to the outrageous legal situation and unscrupulous struggle with any dissent in Ukraine," the ministry said. "We hope that international rights groups and media organizations will not leave Vyshinsky’s plight unattended."