MADRID, August 19 (RIA Novosti) – About 100 cars took part in a flashmob in Madrid on Tuesday to support Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin, who went missing in Ukraine on August 5.
As part of the campaign, the participants put leaflets with words #freeAndrew on their cars. The vehicles with the leaflets are expected to drive all across Madrid and its suburbs for two days.
Cars of Rossiya Segodnya office in Spain, of the Russian embassy in the country, as well as of all those not indifferent to Stenin’s fate took part in the flashmob.
“We all in the embassy are deeply concerned about Andrei Stenin’s fate and backed the idea to launch this campaign, hoping that it would help to release the journalist,” Russia’s Ambassador to Spain, Yuri Korchagin said.
Since August 5, colleagues have been unable to reach Stenin, who had been working in eastern Ukraine. On August 12, Anton Herashchenko, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, said in an interview with the Latvian radio station Baltkom that Stenin had been arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service on charges of assisting terrorists.
Later Herashchenko claimed he was misinterpreted saying he only assumed the photographer had been detained but disclosed no precise information. Baltkom said it had a recording of Herashchenko’s interview and provided it to Rossiya Segodnya.
Russia has already filed two diplomatic notes to Ukraine over Stenin’s case, urging Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement but his location still remains unknown. The photographer is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list.
To take part in the campaign, replace your cover photo with the #freeAndrew and #освободитеАндрея layouts. Visit http://en.ria.ru/ or our Facebook page to download the cover.
The campaign to support Stenin will run until the photographer is freed.
For additional information, please call +7 (495) 645-66-24 or send an e-mail to pr_dept@rian.ru if you have joined the #freeAndrew and #освободитеАндрея campaign.
