"In the morning of 3 December, author Alexei Petrushko and cameraman Ivan Malyshkin told the editorial office that they had been detained by the police in ... Istanbul's suburbs. Connection was interrupted then. On 3 December at 21:00 Moscow time [18:00 GMT], Alexei Petrushko managed to send us a short message saying 'We are still being held here for some reason'. Since then, we have not got in touch, they are not responding to calls or messages", NTV said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry posted a tweet stressing that diplomats have been informed about the incident and are trying to contact the journalists.
The Foreign Ministry and Russia's consulate general in Turkey are making effort to clear things up and find the Russian citizens, NTV confirmed.
Meanwhile, a source from the Turkish Foreign Ministry told Sputnik that the journalists did not possess necessary accreditation and appeared to be filming video footage without obtaining required permission. The source added that the detainees were unharmed and their interrogation was still underway.
"The journalists were spotted by a video surveillance system during unauthorized filming in strategic points of Istanbul. For this reason, they were detained by the intelligence service. Interrogation of journalists continues, they are OK," the source said.