Kosovo sets free Russian journalist detained on espionage charges UPDATED

Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Daria Aslamova contacted the editorial office of the media and reported that she was in the town of Rashka on the Serbian-Kosovo border.

On the night of August 7, the Kosovo authorities released her after her detention, after which she independently reached the border by bus, Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.

"I got to the border by 0400 in the morning. Serbian border guards interrogated me too. They [were trying] to find out why there is no record of deportation," Aslamova said.

11:12

Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent Daria Aslamova has been detained at the border of the autonomous province of Kosovo.

The unrecognized entity's interior ministry made the statement, Interfax reports.

"Many countries have proved that she was engaged in espionage in favour of Russian military intelligence and that she posed as a journalist," the Kosovo interior minister, Jelal Svechlia, told the press.

He added that "her attempt to enter our country, coinciding with the events in the north of the country, clearly proves that Russia has joined Serbia's propaganda in order to destabilise our country".

He did not give any arguments in favour of the charges, except that he published several photos of the journalist on his Facebook page, including with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile, as noted in a message on the Komsomolskaya Pravda website, the Russian Embassy in Belgrade informed the publication that "Russian diplomats do not yet have any information about the detention in Kosovo and the location of Daria Aslamova".

The publication notes that "Aslamova was in Serbia on the instructions of KP".

"There the journalist had to prepare a special report in connection with the aggravation of the Serbian-Kosovo conflict," the report says.

According to Petar Petkovic, Director of the Office of Kosovo and Metohija under the Serbian government, serious problems were miraculously avoided on the administrative border of Serbia and the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija on the night of August 1.

"Tonight we were one step away from serious clashes - about 100 heavily armed special forces of the Kosovo police with armoured vehicles and water cannons were ready to intervene, and they had plans to blame the Serbs who defended the right to movement and residence," Serbian television quoted him as saying.

The situation in the region became more complicated after, in protest against the decision of the local Kosovo authorities to ban cars with Serbian license plates and corresponding Serbian documents from entering the territory of the province from August 1, roads and barricades began to be blocked in Serbian communities of the province on Sunday. Because of this, several checkpoints on the administrative border of Serbia and Kosovo had to be temporarily closed.

Later it became known that at the call of the United States in Kosovo, the introduction of prohibitive measures against car owners with Serbian license plates and documents was postponed for a month.