Russia Puts CNN Reporter On ‘Wanted List’ After Accusing Him of Crossing Its Border

Screenshot/CNN

A CNN reporter is on an international “wanted list” after Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) accused him of recently and illegally crossing its border with Ukraine, according to reports.

Reuters reported the FSB – which succeeded the Soviet Union-era KGB – accused CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh of filming in the country after crossing into its Kursk region. Reuters reported:

Russia’s FSB security service said on Thursday it had opened a criminal case against a journalist working for CNN who it said had illegally crossed the Russian border to film a report inside the Kursk region after a Ukrainian cross-border incursion. The FSB named the journalist as Nick Paton Walsh, a British citizen who works as CNN’s chief international security correspondent. Moscow had banned him from entering Russian territory as part of its standoff with the West.

The FSB said is also investigating two Ukrainian journalists – Diana Butsko and Olesya Borovik – over similar accusations.

Per Reuters, all three journalists face up to five years in a Russian prison and would soon find themselves with international arrest warrants.

CNN defended Walsh, Butsko, and Borovik in a statement released on the network’s website.

“Throughout this conflict our team has delivered factual, impartial reporting covering both the Ukrainian and Russian perspectives on the war,” CNN said. “Our team was invited by the Ukrainian government, along with other international journalists, and escorted by the Ukrainian military to view territory it had recently occupied. This is protected activity in accordance with the rights afforded to journalists under the Geneva Convention and international law.”

CNN also reported the trio would be placed on an “international wanted list” but the FSB did not clarify what list.

According to the network, Walsh has won multiple Emmy Awards since he joined CNN in 2011. He was in Ukraine in February 2022 when Russia invaded and was in Kabul in 2021 when U.S. military forces formally withdrew from Afghanistan.

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