MOSCOW, May 21./ITAR-TASS/. Speaker of the Federation Council upper house of Russia's parliament Valentina Matviyenko said she hoped the Ukrainian parliament will respond to the FC's statement on Wednesday regarding the Russian journalists detained in Ukraine.

"We keep contacts with the Verkhovnaya Rada (parliament); they are interested in developing dialogue," the politician told reporters. "We'll see their reaction now that we've made a statement to the Verkhovnaya Rada."

Hopefully, the Ukrainian parliament will not stand aloof. It cannot but respond to the statement by the upper chamber (of the Russian parliament) and the statement by the State Duma.

"We know how the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and other organizations feel about it," Matviyenko noted.

"I hope that we'll be able to secure the release of our journalists through joint efforts," the FC speaker said.

 

Russia's State Duma reaction

Accusations that two Russian television journalists detained by Ukraine's military were abetting terrorism were dismissed by State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee chief Aleksei Pushkov on Wednesday, demanding their immediate release.

“There is one peculiarity of this detention - LifeNews journalists are currently in Kiev where they are accused of terrorism incitement. Portable anti-aircraft missiles were reportedly found in the trunk of their car,” Pushkov said, adding that “this statement was made by the deputy secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

“The impertinence of this provocation hits in the eye,” he said. “We have to do with well thought-out action by Ukraine’s authorities.”

Pushkov told the lower house of parliament: “The whole regime in Kiev is built on lies."

Lies revolved around snipers in the Maidan, Kiev's Independence Square and hotbed of tension in Ukraine’s capital, and about UN-marked helicopters used by the Ukrainian army in a military operation in the eastern region, he said.

Further lies were told about events in southeast Ukraine’s city of Mariupol, where Ukrainian law enforcers opened fire from armoured vehicles on those rallying to honour World War Two Victory Day. Lies were told about those responsible for a massacre in Odessa, where dozens died in fire started by Right Sector radicals and supporters from the Maidan Self-Defense Force.

“Why should we believe these accusations (against the Russian journalists)?” he asked. “This is another barefaced lie,” he said, calling it Kiev’s "retaliation for the truth".

“The regime in Kiev is trying to conceal the truth about what is happening and to hide its original sin. This is an act of retaliation for the truth,” Pushkov said, adding that the detained journalists had released footage showing a UN-marked helicopter being used by Kiev’s armed forces in an operation against civilians in the east, which Kiev had denied.

“The order to find and arrest them was given immediately after that,” he said.

 

Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights

Chairman of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights Mikhail Fedotov has called on media executives and the Russian Foreign Ministry to issue special identity cards to Russian journalists working in zones of armed conflicts.

“An example of an identity card for journalists engaged in dangerous professional missions is contained in an Additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention of 1949 (relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts),” Fedotov told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.

“It is common practice for journalists to go abroad without such identity cards,” he said. “No legislative changes are needed to issue them - only the goodwill of media executives and the Foreign Ministry.”

Fedotov explained that this initiative had been sparked by the recent detention of two Russian journalists working for the LifeNews television channel in Ukraine.

“This case made us recollect international legal norms concerning the protection of journalists,” he said. “These identity cards could enhance the protection of our correspondents not only in Ukraine, but also in Syria and other countries where armed conflicts take place.”

Reports about victimisation of journalists by security forces loyal to Kiev were repeatedly coming from Ukraine's south-east earlier.

On May 18, Ukraine’s National Guards detained LifeNews journalists Oleg Sidyakin and Marat Saichenko near the city Kramatorsk in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. Subsequently, Deputy Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council Viktoria Syumar accused the journalists of abetting terrorism, claiming they were “members of terrorist groups.”

On Tuesday, the Russia Today (RT) international news television channel reported that its contributing journalist from Britain, Graham Phillips, was detained by Ukraine’s National Guards in southeast Ukraine’s city of Mariupol.