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Russian journalists return home after detention in Istanbul

The journalists were detained near the building of Baykar Savunma, a Turkish company specializing in the production of UAVs

MOSCOW, December 8. /TASS/. Russian reporters working for NTV TV channel, who were detained last week in Turkey, have been deported to Russia, the television company said on its official website on Tuesday.

"Our colleagues, staff of Tsentralnoye Televidenie (Central Television) Alexey Petrushko and Ivan Malyshkin are back in Moscow. They arrived by a night flight. They are fine. We thank the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Russian Embassy in Ankara and Russia’s Consulate General in Istanbul for their assistance. And certainly, all colleagues from mass media outlets, supporting us these days," the television company said.

On December 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that contact had been lost with two Russian journalists in Istanbul. The ministry said that the Russian journalists, reporter Alexey Petrushko and cameraman Ivan Malyshkin from Russia’s NTV channel, had last contacted their colleagues on December 3. They said then that they had been detained by unknown people who were taking them somewhere. Earlier, the broadcaster said that their employees stopped getting in touch after they had informed the editorial office about their detention by police officers near Istanbul.

The journalists were detained near the building of Baykar Savunma, a Turkish company specializing in the production of UAVs, a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry told TASS on Friday. The reporters had no accreditation, the source said. Baykar Savunma produces, in particular, Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicle for the Turkish army.

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