A Russian opposition newspaper journalist, Alexander Kosvintsev, has been granted political asylum in Ukraine, officials said yesterday, according to AFP.
Kosvintsev will have most rights afforded to Ukraine`s citizens, not including the right to vote, an officer of the state migration service in Lviv region told journalists.
Kosvintsev worked as editor in chief at the western Siberian Kemerovo region`s newspaper Rossiyski Reporter and published investigations of corruption and criminal activities involving regional authorities.
He applied for asylum in Ukraine in February 2007, claiming to be the victim of intimidation in Russia.
Kosvintsev also worked at Russian opposition newspaper Novaya Gazeta, whose correspondent Anna Politkovskaya, one of the few Russian reporters to cover the Chechen conflict and criticise the poor human rights record in the republic, was murdered in October 2006.
