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Lavrov tells Cavusoglu that situation around Sputnik Turkiye must be resolved swiftly

Russian Foreign Minister also demanded that security of journalists of the news agency will be ensured

MOSCOW, March 1. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has called for immediate measures to settle the situation around Sputnik Turkiye employees, the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday after Lavrov’ telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu.

"The Russian side stressed that the situation around journalists and employees of Sputnik news agency in Ankara must be resolved the soonest possible. He also demanded their security be ensured," the ministry said.

Editor-in-Chief of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RT and Sputnik Margarita Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel earlier on Sunday that the police was searching the agency’s Istanbul office under an official warrant. She also wrote that the three Sputnik Turkiye employees, who had been detained earlier, were taken to the Palace of Justice for questioning. According to Simonyan, practically all Spitnik Turkiye employees are Turkish nationals.

On Saturday night, Simonyan wrote that unidentified persons had broken into the apartments of three Sputnik employees in Ankara, accusing them of high treason because of their work for a Russian mass media outlet.

Later, the Sozcu newspaper said that the police had detrained these three journalists over a publication on the news agency’s website titled "The Stolen Province: Why Turkey Was Given A Corner of Syria By France 80 years ago." The province of Hatay became part of Turkey in 1939 under an agreement with France when Syria was ruled by the French mandate.