'Kill Russian Reporters': Moscow Launches Criminal Case Over Expert's Call

Ukrainain political scientist told Harvard students that "Ukraine's Armed Forces should selectively and carefully kill Russian journalists in Donbass".

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian investigators have launched a criminal case against a Ukrainian political scientist who called for the murder of Russian journalists, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said Tuesday.

Markin said that in the beginning of April 2015, Yuri Romanenko publicly announced during a conference in Harvard University that

“Ukrainian military forces should selectively and carefully kill Russian journalists who report on the situation in southeastern Ukraine.”

Romanenko’s text was also published on his Facebook page as well as published in the press.

Как мы в Гарварде об Украине дискутировалиВ Гарварде у нас была занимательная дискуссия. Одна из участниц с украинской…

Posted by Yuriy Romanenko on Sunday, 5 April 2015

“According to investigations, the material contains destructive calls to individuals in the Ukrainian Armed Forces to conduct mass murder of citizens from the Russian Federation, including Russian journalists in line with their fulfilling of their professional duties,” Markin said.

Markin also added that such phrases by Romanenko “call for the initiation of hate and hostility against journalists from the Russian Federation, as well as individuals from social groups.”

On April 29, watchdog Freedom House said in a report that violence against the press remained at a high level in Ukraine, especially in the country's east where Kiev forces are clashing with local independence supporters.

Freedom of the media in Ukraine has been repeatedly violated since the start of the military conflict between Kiev authorities and Donbass independence supporters in April 2014. Several international journalists have been abducted, tortured and killed during the hostilities, including Rossiya Segodnya photojournalist Andrei Stenin.

A total of four Russian journalists are said to have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the military confrontation in the country. According to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), eight journalists were killed in Ukraine in 2014.

In February, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, made a decision to strip Russian news outlets of their accreditation in government agencies. According to Ukraine's Security Service (SBU), there are more than 100 Russian media outlets on the blacklist.