Two Italian journalists who drew the ire of Moscow after a television report from areas controlled by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region will return to Italy, the RAI network said on Saturday.
The Russian foreign minister summoned the Italian ambassador on Friday over what he called an illegal border crossing by a team of RAI journalists.
“The company decided that journalist Stefania Battistini and cameraman Simone Traini will temporarily return to Italy, for reasons of their personal safety”,has Rai.
The Russian state news agency announced that the Federal Security Service, FSB, had opened an investigation against the journalist and the cameraman.
A four-member RAI television crew, accompanied by the Ukrainian military, were the first foreign media to report from the war-torn Russian city of Sudzha, which was seized during the Ukrainian surprise attack in the Kursk region.
The two journalists are expected to return to Milan on Sunday.
Neither journalist Battistini, who reported live from Kiev on Saturday for the “TG1News” program, nor cameraman Traini, responded to a request for comment.
Italy's Foreign Ministry said Ambassador Cecilia Piccioni had explained to Russian authorities that RAI and the team of journalists acted independently.
“Journalism is not a crime. The possibility that the Moscow authorities open court cases against Stefania Battistinim and Simone Trainim is unacceptable. Reporting is not done with prior authorizations”, said in a joint statement the union of RAI and the national union of the Italian press.
