September 12, 2024 | 18.12
READING TIME: 2 minutes
Stefania Battistini, the RAI journalist who first documented the Ukrainian offensive in the Russian region of Kursk, is officially wanted by Moscow. The journalist was included in a list that also includes the cameraman Simone Traini and other journalists of foreign newspapers. They are all wanted for having illegally crossed the border between Ukraine and Russia.
The list, according to reports in Moscow, also includes CNN’s Nick Walsh, Deutsche Welle’s Nicholas Simon Connolly, Natalya Nagornaya, correspondent for the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, and two other Ukrainian journalists, Diana Butsko and Olesya Borovik.
Tajani summons the ambassador
“I summoned the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Italy to the Farnesina to express our surprise at Moscow’s singular decision to include the journalist Battistini in the wanted list issued by the Russian Interior Ministry,” writes Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in X.
Tajani’s announcement follows the Russian Interior Ministry’s decision to include the RAI journalist on the wanted list, along with other foreign reporters, specifically Nick Walsh of CNN, Nicholas Simon Connolly of Deutsche Welle, Natalya Nagornaya, correspondent for the Ukrainian TV channel 1+1, and two other Ukrainian journalists, Diana Butsko and Olesya Borovik.
Battistini’s service
On August 17, the FSB announced that it had opened criminal proceedings against Battistini and Tg1 cameraman Simone Traini, accusing them of “illegally crossing the border” with Russia and filming videos in Sudzha, in the Russian region of Kursk, the scene of an incursion by Ukrainian forces in early August.
The note from Rai
“The decision by the Russian Ministry of the Interior to include Rai journalist Stefania Battistini and her cameraman Simone Traini in the list of wanted persons for their reportage in the Kursk oblast represents an act of violation of freedom of information”, Rai states in a statement. “The journalist and the cameraman carried out their work as witnesses of the events in an exemplary and objective manner. Rai continues to carry out its role as a public service also thanks to the courageous activity of its journalists and correspondents and reserves the right to operate in every venue to denounce the decision of the Russian government in defense of freedom of information and to protect its journalist and the cameraman”, Rai continues.
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