MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has reported that Russian journalist Kirill Vyshinsky, who was arrested in Ukraine, has prepared a request to meet with her.
"As the lawyer for the journalist said, on August 20 Kirill Vyshinsky prepared a request to organize a meeting with me and on August 21 the document was given to an investigator. We want to believe that this time Ukraine’s authorities will allow Kirill fulfill his right to a meeting with a representative for the country of which he is a citizen," Moskalkova said in a statement, which TASS has at its disposal. The human rights commissioner noted that Ukraine’s authorities earlier refused to organize a meeting with Vyshinsky for her and barred the Russian consul from visiting him as well.
The Russian human rights commissioner is confident that the journalist is not guilty. "It is obvious for us that Kirill is not guilty and suffered for his commitment to the freedom of speech. The true reason behind his arrest was, most probably, the desire to create a situation in which it would be possible to raise the issue of the exchange of the Russian journalist for convicted Ukrainian citizens. We are surprised that in the country that has proclaimed its commitment to the ‘common European values’ for many years the execution by a journalist of his professional obligations is considered equivalent to the commitment of a state crime," the document reads.
Moskalkova reiterated that today is 100 days since the journalist’s arrest and noted that, "realizing his responsibility to his relatives and friends, to all who love and remember him, he did not consider it possible to resort to effective, but senseless, ways to protect his rights, like a hunger strike." The Russian human rights commissioner affirmed that she continues to follow the journalist’s fate and expressed her support for him.