Russian news director arrested in Kyiv office on treason charges

Kirill Vyshinsky,
the director of the RIA Novosti Ukraine news agency, was arrested on May 15 by the Security
Service of Ukraine (SBU) for criminal charges of state treason during a search
of its Kyiv offices. Later that day, Vyshinsky was transported to Ukraine’s
Kherson region, bordering Crimea, where the terms of his detention would be set.

During their
investigations leading to the arrest, SBU officers collected evidence that the
RIA Novosti Ukraine news site published calls for undermining Ukraine’s state
sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability, and state and information
security, an SBU spokeswoman said. “Searches are ongoing at the current moment,
but already a large volume of evidence has emerged that confirms the mentioned
illegal activity,” the spokeswoman said. RIA Novosti is among Russia’s leading
news organizations. Vyshinsky was granted Russian citizenship in 2015,
according to the myrotvorets.center website, though he likely still has
Ukrainian citizenship. 

The Russian Embassy
in Ukraine sent a note of protest to the Ukrainian government regarding
Vyshinsky’s arrest, calling for “using all necessary measures to halt violence
against mass media representatives, the immediate release of Vyshinsky, an
objective investigation of what happened and punishing those who abused their
authority.” Ukraine is restricting the freedom and rights of Russian mass media
and journalists with the arrest of Vyshinsky, which deserves “harsh condemnation,”
Russian presidential
administration spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the same
day.

The U.S. State
Department regards the searches of RIA Novosti Ukraine’s offices and arrest of Vyshinsky as
“very serious actions,” according to its spokeswoman. “We understand that
Ukraine, like many other countries, is concerned with the intense
propaganda,” she said, later adding. “But on the whole, these are very serious
actions that are necessary to conduct in accordance with the law.”

Harlem Desir, the OSCE
Representative on Freedom of the Media, said Ukraine’s battle against
propaganda shouldn’t violate international standards nor disproportionately
interfere with the activity of mass media. “I express serious concern over the
morning raid on the offices of Russian mass media in Kyiv, the arrest of
journalists and searches of their residences,” he said.

Zenon Zawada: Just as it will be hard to restrict
the influence of Russian propaganda in democratic elections scheduled for next
year, it is equally as hard to balance the ideal of freedom of the press with
the need to defend the nation against Russian propaganda attacks. Since neither
government has officially declared war, the legal basis to restrict press
freedoms is tenuous. Yet since a war is being waged in reality (with numerous
battles still being fought daily), Ukraine’s actions won’t draw anything more
than a verbal scolding from Western authorities. The Ukrainian government is
well aware of this and we expect further actions to restrict the ability of the
Russian government to manipulate Ukrainian citizens.

Since the ability of political parties to compete effectively in the
2019 elections will be largely dependent on access to mass media, it remains to
be seen what restrictions the government will place – officially or de facto –
on Russian-oriented parties, and to what extent Western authorities will concede to the
Ukrainian government limiting their activities (by recognizing the vote results, despite inevitable
allegations of election violations).