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29 February 2000

Text: RFE/RL on Return Home of Russian Reporter Andrei Babitsky

(RFE/RL President urges Moscow to drop all charges against Babitsky)
(380)
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) war correspondent Andrei
Babitsky has been brought to Moscow and released on his own
recognizance on condition he remain in Moscow, according to a February
28 press release by RFE/RL.
Babitsky was detained by Russian authorities in Chechnya on January 16
and his whereabouts were unclear until he contacted his wife from
Daghestan on February 25.
While welcoming Babitsky's return to Moscow as an important step
forward, RFE/RL President Thomas A. Dine underscored that Radio Free
Europe/Radio Liberty will "continue to seek to have all charges
against Andrei Babitsky dropped," the release states.
Following is the text of the RFE/RL release:
(begin text)
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 
Washington, DC 20036
http://www.rferl.org 
Press Release
February 28, 2000
BABITSKY RETURNS HOME
(Washington, DC--Feb. 28) Andrei Babitsky, the RFE/RL correspondent
who was detained by the Russian authorities in Chechnya on January 16
and who resurfaced in Daghestan on February 25, is now at home in his
Moscow apartment.
Babitsky has told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that he was flown to
Moscow from Daghestan earlier today aboard a Russian military aircraft
in the company of interior ministry officers.
The prize-winning war correspondent added that the Russian authorities
have released him on his own recognizance on condition that he remain
in Moscow while the investigation continues. So far, Babitsky said, he
has been charged with possessing false documents.
RFE/RL President Thomas A. Dine welcomed Babitsky's release as an
important step forward but underscored that Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty will "continue to seek to have all charges against Andrei
Babitsky dropped."
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a private, international radio
service to Eastern Europe and Southeastern Europe, Russia, the
Caucasus, Central Asia and the Middle East funded by the US Congress.
More than 20 million listeners rely on RFE/RL's daily news, analysis
and current affairs programming to provide a coherent, objective
account of events in their region and the world.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)