Vladimir Putin’s Russia Takes Another Shot at Press Freedom. After the Rai correspondents Stefania Battistini and Simone TrainiRussian security services have criminal proceedings announced against three other journalists: CNN correspondent Nick Paton Walsh and Ukrainian reporters Olesya Borovik and Diana ButskoThe accusation is the same for everyone: «Illegal border crossing»or having entered Russian territory without permission from Moscow. A charge that carries up to five years of imprisonment. In essence, the journalists are being accused by the Kremlin for following the offensive of Ukrainian soldiers in the Russian region of Kursk.
“They will soon be included in the international wanted list,” said the FSB, the intelligence agency that has replaced the KGB in Russia. Moscow’s accusations come at the height of tensions between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine. And in recent days, Russian diplomacy spokeswoman Maria Zakharova went so far as to declare that the activity of Western media entering the Russian region of Kursk from Ukraine “is evidence of their direct involvement in the implementation of a large-scale hybrid aggression against Russia.”
Just as in the case of the RAI journalists, Russia had summoned the Italian ambassador, a few days ago the Russian Foreign Ministry said it had expressed “a strong protest” to the head of the American diplomatic mission in Russia, Stephanie Holmes, speaking of “provocative actions” by American journalists “who entered the Kursk region illegally”. The CNN journalist accused by Moscow is however indicated by the international media as a British citizen: Nick Paton Walsh previously worked in Moscow for Channel 4 News and the Guardian. He is now CNN’s chief correspondent for international security issues. A report published by the American TV on August 16 shows him in the Russian town of Sudzha amid the devastation of the war.