Russian officials filed criminal charges Thursday against CNN reporter Nick Paton Walsh, along with Ukrainian reporters Olesia Borovyk and Diana Butsko, for allegedly crossing the Russian border illegally to file reports on the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk.
Russia’s FSB, successor to the KGB, said it would place all three journalists on an “international wanted list.”
Walsh is CNN’s chief international security correspondent. The Ukrainian government invited him last week to visit Sudzha, a Russian town held by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian troops pushed across the border into Russia’s Kursk province on August 6, and still hold territory in Russia to this day.
Walsh filed a report from Sudzha last Friday. He described residents of the town as stunned by the swift and sudden Ukrainian assault, and noted they have generally been treated well by the occupying force.
“Throughout this conflict our team has delivered factual, impartial reporting covering both the Ukrainian and Russian perspectives on the war,” CNN said in Walsh’s defense after the FSB announced its criminal investigation.
“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,” the network pointed out.
The FSB took similar action last weekend against two Italian journalists who entered Kursk with Ukrainian troops.
Moscow summoned the Italian ambassador to complain that reporters Simone Traini and Stefania Battistini of Italian state broadcaster RAI illegally crossed the border to commit journalism. Italy responded that RAI plans its reporting activities in a “totally free and independent way.”
The Russians have also threatened to file charges against an American reporter and photographer, Siobhan O’Grady and Ed Ram of the Washington Post, for filing a report from Sudzha.
Russia held American reporter Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal hostage for over a year, eventually releasing him in August 2024 in a prisoner swap that freed eight hardened Russian criminals, spies, and assassins. The favorable swap deal may have emboldened Russia to shop for more hostages, and “illegally crossing the Russian border” would be a far more substantial charge than the nebulous accusations of espionage employed as a pretext for holding Gershkovich.