MOSCOW, August 7. /TASS/. Russian journalist Daria Aslamova, who was earlier detained in Kosovo, has contacted the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper she works for, saying that she was released, the paper wrote on its website on Sunday.
The journalist said that Kosovo authorities released her last night, after which she made it alone to the Serbia-Kosovo border. She is currently in the town of Raska in Serbia. "I got to the border by 4 am. The Serbian border guards also questioned me to clarify why there was no deportation stamp," the newspaper quoted its journalist as saying.
The journalist is in touch with the Russian Embassy in Serbia.
Kosovo’s Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla reported about the detention of Aslamova overnight to Sunday. He said the journalist was suspected of espionage in order to destabilize the situation against the background of a new escalation in Kosovo.
According to the Russian daily, Aslamova was tasked in Kosovo to work on a special report regarding recently circulated information about heightened tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.
Tensions escalated dramatically in Kosovo and Metohija on July 31 after Kosovo police had closed a checkpoint on the administrative line with Serbia as part of preparations for the implementation of a ban on Serbian documents.
In response, Serbs living in the northern part of Kosovo came out to protest and blocked major roads. Police officers and members of the NATO-led Kosovo Force international mission (KFOR) were deployed to a bridge across the Ibar River, which connects the northern and southern parts of Kosovska Mitrovica.
As a result of international efforts, Pristina decided to postpone the ban until September 1.