MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti) – State Duma Committee Chairman on Public Associations and Religious Organizations Yaroslav Nilov has joined the campaign in support of Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin, who disappeared in Ukraine.
Nilov posted the hashtag #freeAndrew in his Facebook account.
Earlier the same day, State Duma Deputy Speaker Sergei Zhelezniak and A Just Russia party leader Sergei Mironov joined the campaign as well. Mironov also sent a letter to Volodymyr Lytvyn, the head of the Ukrainian Committee on National Defense and Security, in which he asked the official to participate in finding and liberating Stenin.
Andrei Stenin had been working in eastern Ukraine when communications with the photographer went dark on August 5. On August 12, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, said Stenin had been arrested by the Ukrainian Security Service on charges of assisting terrorists, adding later that he did not really have information on the case and that he was misinterpreted.
Moscow has asked Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement, but Stenin’s location remains unknown. The photographer is now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list, according to Herashchenko.
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.
