MOSCOW, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's security bodies intend to repatriate a Russian reporter for allegedly taking part in mass anti-NATO protests in the Crimea, a Russian newspaper official said Friday.
Alexander Kots, a special correspondent covering developments in hot spots for the Komsomolskaya Pravda tabloid, was ordered out of the former Soviet republic after a week on the Crimean peninsula, said Andrei Baranov, the paper's political editor.
"He [Kots] has been detained by Ukrainian security officials," Baranov said. "He was accused of taking part in unauthorized protests in the Crimea."
Baranov said the security bodies had played a video tape showing the reporter, who he described as "an experienced, hardened special correspondent", among the protesters.
Kots was in the largely Russian-speaking Crimea, which is home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, to report on the rallies and the blockade of a U.S. cargo vessel at the port of Feodosia since late May. It had arrived ahead of military exercises, Sea Breeze 2006, slated for late July that are seen by many as part of Ukraine's bid to join NATO.
Earlier this week, Ukraine denied entry to two Russian senior lawmakers, Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Konstantin Zatulin. The Foreign Ministry said ultra-nationalist Zhirinovsky had made "insulting statements about Ukraine."
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin condemned the bans as "a serious and unfriendly act that contradicts statements of the Ukrainian leadership on their desire to consolidate relations with Russia."
Baranov said the security bodies had seized the reporter's mobile phone with an incorporated camera and notebook. Although Kots received them back, some of his photographs, including one showing a Russian flag hoisted in the area allotted for a NATO base, had been deleted.
Baranov also said the paper might send another reporter to the region.
