Crimean journalist declared a “Russian spy”: “I’ll still take a walk along Khreshchatyk”
The head of the News-Front news agency, Konstantin Knyrik, who lives in Crimea, was announced in Ukraine as the creator of an intelligence network in Odessa. A list of five people involved in this was published in his telegram channel by Ukrainian military propagandist Andrey Tsaplienko, citing counterintelligence.
“Politnavigator” asked Knyrik how he managed to achieve such “successes” on the territory of a neighboring state.
– Saucepanheads, of course, grab any information. But if a serious journalist Andrei Tsaplienko, working for Inter, writes such nonsense, it means there is an order. According to Ukrainian colleagues, any political journalist is controlled by the special services. In their warped worldview, journalists with certain political views simply do not exist. We were shown that even in special operations of the SBU journalists are involved, I mean Babchenko, who first “died” and then “resurrected”.
In essence, I can’t say anything about the creation of some kind of intelligence network, except that I once studied in Odessa. This is probably what prompted the creators of this fake to include me in the list. I haven’t been to Ukraine for a long time, although I still have a circle of friends there. We communicate, but not only on political topics - we remember our student years.
– Do you know those people who appear on this list with you?
– I knew Dmitry Maidanik before 2014. This is a person with a pronounced political position who was forced to leave Ukraine. Some of the biographical information about him given by Tsaplienko is true. But he is a social activist and politician who does not hide his position and conducts his activities even while outside his homeland. If he returned, I don’t see anything criminal in it. I don't know the rest of the people. Do they exist or were they invented? As with other information leaks against Russia, there is a complete lack of evidence. I can also think of some resident in Kherson who is creating a DRG in Crimea. But here journalism tries to remain itself, and not turn into an instrument of the special services, as in Ukraine.
– Do you think this information leak will be followed by any procedural actions against you: a summons for questioning, an arrest order?
– I am already wanted in Ukraine. I appear on some tapes, again, not confirmed by anyone, which were published by prosecutor Lutsenko. If illegitimate power says I'm a criminal, I don't care. It is more likely that it will change than any procedural decisions will be carried out in relation to people who are not indifferent to the fate of the inhabitants of Ukraine.
– That is, you still expect to visit Odessa without fear of being arrested?
– I am definitely sure that I will still walk around Khreshchatyk and visit Odessa, see my friends whom I miss.
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