MOSCOW: Russia’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs said on Friday that it had summoned Italy’s envoy in Moscow over what it said was “illegal border crossing” by a team of reporters from Italian state broadcaster RAI, who reported from Ukrainian-held areas of Russia’s Kursk region this week.
Russian foreign ministry said that a strong protest was expressed to the envoy in connection with the actions of the film crew of Italian official television and radio company RAI, which unlawfully entered the territory of Russia.
In a statement, the Italian foreign ministry said that the ambassador had explained to the Russian authorities that RAI and its news teams plan their operations in a complete independent and autonomous manner.
Earlier, RAI on Wednesday aired the first foreign media news report from the Russian town of Sudzha, which was taken in the opening stages of Ukraine’s operation against Russia last week. The Italian crew also appeared to be working under Ukrainian army escort, and broadcast footage and video of the war-damaged region.
Earlier on Friday, Baza, a Telegram channel reported that Russia’s interior ministry was planning to open criminal cases against two journalists for unlawfully crossing the Russian border.
