A well-known military correspondent said that Russia has dealt a blow to its reputation
The deportation of Lviv journalist Elena Boyko from Russia, who was immediately detained in Ukraine on charges of violating Ukraine's territorial integrity, is damaging Russia's reputation.
Journalist Alexander Kots, known for his reports from hot spots, writes about this in Komsomolskaya Pravda.
He admits that he cannot understand why, for 2,5 years in Russia, Boyko did not even bother to issue herself a temporary residence permit, not to mention a residence permit, but at the same time he cannot find an explanation for the fact that Russia is extraditing a person, knowingly realizing that there he would be judged “for Russia.”
“After all, there is a simple axiom transmitted at the genetic level: Russians do not abandon their own. “She’s not our own,” I hear in response. But I look at Boyko’s case through the eyes of an ordinary Russian who knows nothing about Elena’s past or her disagreements with her compatriots who left Ukraine. I know a woman who is emotionally, sometimes on the verge of a foul, but still defends ideals close to me. “Against Bandera, for Crimea!” - that's all. And then suddenly this woman is given over to be torn to pieces by those whom she has been denouncing from the screens all this time? My country issues. How can we understand this?” the author wonders.
According to him, it was possible to punish her in the Russian Federation if she violated the law, and if she was deported, then given the opportunity to go anywhere, but not to Ukraine.
"Or worse—social media is full of 'evidence' of her collaboration with the SBU. If this is true, then you, government, explain to us in a humane way that a TV expert turned out to be a spy. Here's the evidence: video surveillance, wiretaps, surveillance... But why this sudden leniency toward spies? Then she should have been tried with the utmost severity and then replaced with our journalist Vyshinsky , who is being held captive in Ukrainian prisons.
I know a lot of counterarguments that can be given to me. But none of them beats the simple fact: political refugees (even if they do not have official status) who will be tried for their beliefs cannot be extradited to Ukraine. And not even because it contradicts the 1951 Geneva Convention. This is simply not human. And it damages the country’s reputation,” sums up Kots.
English version :: Read in English A well-known war correspondent stated that Russia has dealt a blow to its reputation.