MOSCOW - The U.S. embassy in Russia has denounced the detention of Nikolai Semena working for a Radio Liberty project in Crimea, embassy press secretary Will Stevens said.
On Tuesday, the press service of the Crimean prosecutor’s office announced that a travel ban was imposed on Semena, a journalist from Krim. Realii (Crimea. Realities) internet project, a division of Radio Liberty, who is suspected of extremism.
“We strongly condemn the detention of journalists and raids by Russian security services on at least five offices of media outlets in Crimea, including the offices of Radio Free Europe’s Crimea Service ‘Krim Realii’,” Stevens told Interfax on Wednesday.
“We understand that at least one journalist was detained for speaking out against Russia’s occupation and attempted annexation of this Ukrainian territory. We call for the immediate release of these journalists, and a halt on raids on media organizations by Russian occupation authorities,” he added.
The U.S. embassy press secretary said: “These actions appear to be the most recent examples of the Russian government’s growing crackdown on independent voices both in Russia, and in Russian-occupied Crimea.”
Asked whether the U.S. could take response measures against reporters from the Russian media Stevens said he could not predict that.
Previously, the Crimean department of the Federal Security Service (FSB) launched a criminal case against Semena on the charge of “public calls for actions aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, with the use of mass media, or electronic or information telecommunications networks (including the internet).” The prosecutor’s office of Crimea is overseeing the relevant investigation.
“The author of the publication, which was posted on the website of the news service, made remarks calling for isolationist measures, including combat operations, to be conducted with respect to the peninsula, and its inhabitants,” a press release of the prosecutor’s office says about Semena.
Searches were conducted on Tuesday at the homes of Semena and several other journalists in Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol.
Postings in social networks say that the Ukrainian Information Ministry is preparing appeals to international organizations in relation to the searches of the homes of Crimean journalists cooperating with Krim. Realii.
