On Friday, Izvestia announced that its film crew was detained in Estonia while working on a story on the restriction of the issuance of visas to Russians and on the deprivation of the Soviet T-34 tank of its monument status. Shortly after midnight Friday, Izvestia said on Telegram that Ksenia Soldatova and Dmitry Timofeev had been released from the police station in the Estonian city of Johvi.
"Izvestia journalists detained in Estonia had their visas revoked... They were also banned from entering EU countries for 3 years," the newspaper said in a later update on Telegram, posting a document stating that Soldatova's visa was declared invalid due to the fact that the conditions and purpose of the intended stay were not justified.
According to Izvestia, Estonian law enforcement officers have taken the journalists to the Narva border checkpoint and Soldatova and Timofeev are now headed to the Ivangorod border checkpoint to return to Russia.
Earlier, the newspaper said that its correspondent Ksenia Soldatova and cameraman Dmitry Timofeev were traveling on a train from Narva to Tallinn on Friday when Estonian police approached them and showed Soldatova a photo of her filming a tank. The newspaper said that its film crew was then taken to a police station.
The exact grounds for their detention remain unknown.
The Estonian authorities made a decision on Thursday to ban Russian citizens with Estonia-issued Schengen visas from entering its territory. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on Tuesday that visiting Europe is a privilege, not a human right, and it is time to end tourism for Russians in light of the special military operation in Ukraine.