The Moscow Times edition confirmed detention of his correspondent Kirill Ponomarev in Belgorod. Earlier, the Dozhd TV channel (which is a foreign agent), citing activist Ilya Kostyukov, reported that the journalist was detained on suspicion of espionage. However, later the police department on duty stated that he was charged with an administrative article.
“The Moscow Times correspondent Kirill Ponomarev was detained in Belgorod while preparing a report on refugees housed in suburban Sosnovka. Ponomarev acted on the instructions of the editorial office, communicated with the citizens of Russia and Ukraine, who were taken out from under the shelling, ”the publication reported.
The journalist does not get in touch with the editorial office for more than four hours. Lawyer Yekaterina Selezneva, who came to the department, told Dozhd that Mr. Ponomarev had been questioned. This was also confirmed by The Moscow Times.
Belgorod human rights activist Yevgeny Sokolov, according to Dozhd on his Telegram channel, called the police department to find out the reason for the detention. “I asked a police officer: ‘Are you spying on him?” He says: ”No”,” the human rights activist said.