MOSCOW, May 14 (RAPSI) – Tomorrow marks the year-long detention of Kirill Vyshinsky in Ukraine; and Russian ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova again expresses a hope that Ukrainian authorities will take steps to the treason case termination and release of the journalist.

The editor-in-chief of RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency Vyshinsky, who has Ukrainian and Russian citizenship, was arrested in Kiev on May 15, 2018 on suspicion of treason and placed in detention. The journalist’s detention has been repeatedly extended ever since.     

Moskalkova assumes that Vyshinsky was arrested because of RIA Novosti Ukraine’s publications about events held on May 9, 2018, in commemoration of the Great Patriotic War victory despite radicals’ provocations, she told RAPSI.

The human rights commissioner believes that the journalist is prosecuted “for his professional activity and the right to think and speak freely, in other words for the dissenting view, in contradiction to the standards of international law and common sense.”

According to Moskalkova, the OSCE and its Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Désir endorse Russia’s efforts to release Vyshinsky.

Moskalkova earlier repeatedly requested international organizations including UN, Council of Europe and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to speak in defense of the Russian journalist. According to the ombudsman, the case against Vyshinsky and his detention are illegal.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously said that Vyshinsky was arrested and detained for his professional journalistic activities. He also called this policy of Ukrainian authorities unprecedented and inadmissible.