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Two employees of Russian non-profit organization detained in Libya

The Russian foreign ministry has not verified the reports of the detention as yet

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Head of the Russian non-profit organization "Foundation for National Values Protection" Alexander Malkevich stated that Libyan authorities had detained two members of his organization.

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"The Foundation for National Values Protection informs of the detention of its employees, including a well-known sociologist Maxim Shugalei, by Libyan authorities. Activities of the members of the research group were limited to conducting public opinion polls, studying the humanitarian, cultural and political situation in the country," Malkevich told TASS on Friday.

According to Malkevich, the foundation’s experts "in no way meddled in the electoral processes on the Libyan territory, their work solely amounted to monitoring the situation in the country." "The employees of the foundation were detained back in May; however, the reports on their detention reached the media only on July 5. Since the detention of its employees, the Foundation for National Values Protection has been holding private talks on their release," Malkevich stressed, adding that the detained researchers have not been officially charged yet.

Meanwhile the Russian Foreign Ministry is verifying the reports on the detention of the two Russians and, as the ministry informed TASS on Friday, there has been no official notice so far.

"We are aware of the reports by several Western sources on the detention of two Russian citizens in Tripoli. We have taken measures to verify the information via relevant channels. There has been no official notice on this matter from the Libyan side," the ministry stated.

Earlier, the Bloomberg agency informed that the law enforcement officers of the internationally recognized Libyan government had detained two Russian citizens allegedly "accused of trying to influence upcoming elections" in the country.

A general election was stipulated in the Libyan Political Agreement signed in December 2015 by Libyan politicians in Shirat, Morocco and brokered by the UN. However, this agreement has not been implemented so far.

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