Police on Thursday briefly detained the leader of Radio Liberty’s Russia service, journalist Masha Gessen, on suspicion of videotaping classified facilities while visiting an imprisoned Pussy Riot member.
Gessen, the Russian-American former editor of Snob and Vokrug Sveta magazines, was detained while heading to a a penal colony in Mordovia to visit with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of punk band Pussy Riot, Radio Liberty reported.
Gessen was taken to a nearby police station so authorities could verify her identity and the legality of her actions at the colony, she tweeted.
“They established that I am who I am. I explained that I have no criminal intentions. We departed as friends,” Gessen wrote on Twitter.
Gessen was traveling with Tolokonnikova’s husband, Pyotr Verzilov, and their 5-year-old daughter.
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