MOSCOW, July 26 (RIA Novosti) – Plane flying from Tallinn with journalists of the Russian television channel Zvezda on board landed in Moscow Sheremetyevo airport Saturday, according to the channel’s statement issued on its website.
“Employees of Zvezda channel correspondent Maxim Gritsenko and cameraman Vyacheslav Amelyutin, who who were detained in Tallinn airport the day before, safely landed in Moscow,” the statement reads.
Representative of the Russian consulate, who helped free the journalists shortly after the detention, said that Estonian side allowed a number of grave violations, which will become a subject to a serious discussion, according to the channel.
Earlier Friday, Gritsenko and Amelyutin, who arrived to Estonia to cover the annual gathering of veterans of the 20th Waffen-SS division, were detained at passport control in Tallinn airport without any explanations. According to the press service of the country’s Police and Border Guard Board, the two journalists were denied entry to Estonia because they arrived in the country with tourist visas but as it was later revealed the purpose of their visit was not tourism but work. The channel in turn said their employees had business Schengen visas, allowing them to stay in the country for 90 days.
Gritsenko himself said that they were detained allegedly because of the block of cigarettes they had with them. Russians were held in a closed room for almost five hours, their documents and cell phones were taken away. The journalists were also not allowed to call home or to the Russian embassy.
