Russia Protests Illegal Entry of US Journalists in Kursk
CNN reporter Nick Paton Walsh, Kursk region, Russia. Aug. 2024. Photo: X/ @cristi_v77
August 20, 2024 Hour: 10:48 am
They entered this Russian region alongside Ukrainian troops on August 6.
On Tuesday, the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry summoned the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires in Moscow, Stephanie Holmes, over the illegal entry of American reporters into the Kursk region.
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“An official and firm protest was lodged with U.S. Chargé d’Affaires S. Holmes regarding the provocative actions of American journalists who illegally entered the Kursk region,” stated the official notice.
The U.S. reporters entered Russia to “cover, in a propagandistic manner, the crimes of the Kyiv regime,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry said concerning the presence of U.S. journalists who entered Russian territory alongside Ukrainian troops on August 6.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also protested the emergence of reports about the participation of a U.S. private military company on the Ukrainian side during its incursion into Russian territory.
Russia emphasized that such actions contradict Washington’s statements about its “supposed non-involvement” in the attack on Kursk. It also warned that measures would be taken against those who violated Russian laws in accordance with existing regulations.
The Russian diplomacy’s complaint would seem to be directly related to the reports that journalists from the Washington Post and CNN carried out from Sudzha, a city in the Kursk region.
“In the CNN broadcast, journalists traveled with a Ukrainian military convoy from Ukraine to Sudzha, where they encountered a nearly deserted town with a few dozen elderly residents remaining. For the Washington Post, a text reporter, a videographer and a photographer traveled to Sudzha on Saturday escorted by Ukrainian troops, and interviewed dozens of Russian civilians and Ukrainian soldiers,” The Straits Times reported.
Last week, Russia summoned Italian Ambassador Cecilia Piccioni to protest the illegal presence of journalists from the Italian state television channel RAI in areas controlled by Ukrainian troops in the Russian border region of Kursk. Subsequently, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) initiated a criminal case for illegal border crossing against two correspondents from the Italian state television channel RAI.
teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE – The Straits Times
