Activists in Belgrade Support Missing Russian Journalist Stenin

MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - An event in support of International Information Agency Rossiya Segodnya photographer Andrei Stenin (#freeAndrew), who disappeared in Ukraine, is taking place in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Tens of people have gathered on the city’s main pedestrian street, Knez Mihailova Street, to publicly call for Stenin’s release and collect signatures for a petition to the Ukrainian government that will be sent to the Ukrainian Embassy in the Serbian capital later on.

The activists will also distribute 3,000 photographs taken by the photojournalist while working in Slaviansk and the Donetsk Region in order to familiarize the local community with Stenin’s work. They also urge people to show their support for Stenin on social networks using the hashtag #freeAndrew.

The anti-fascist Dveri movement and a group of Serbian journalists organized the event.

A number of international organizations and press associations around the world, including OSCE, Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Coordinating Council of Russian Compatriots in Argentina, the Mexican Press Club and others have condemned the abduction of Stenin and have demanded his immediate release.

Earlier this week, some 100 cars took part in a flash mob in Madrid. As part of the campaign, the participants put leaflets with #freeAndrew on their cars. The vehicles with the leaflets were expected to drive around Madrid and its suburbs for two days.

Andrei Stenin was working in eastern Ukraine and has been unreachable beginning August 5. On August 12, an aide to the Ukrainian interior minister, Anton Herashchenko, said Ukrainian Security Service had arrested Stenin on charges of assisting terrorists, adding later that he did not really have information on the case and was misinterpreted.

Moscow has asked Kiev to comment on Herashchenko’s statement, but Stenin’s location still remains unknown. The photographer is said to be now on the Ukrainian militia’s missing persons list.

Please support Andrei Stenin’s release by sharing the hashtag #FreeAndrew in social networks. Andrei is a professional war photographer reporting from the most dangerous war zones in the world. You can view Andrei’s pictures from Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Libya here and his most recent shots from eastern Ukraine here.