TV Journalist Quits In Protest At Kremlin's Policies On Ukraine

Journalist Pavel Sheremet said his bosses had been contacted repeatedly by the Kremlin to complain about the tone of his coverage.

Well-known journalist Pavel Sheremet has left Russia's Public Television (ORT) in protest at the Kremlin's current policies on Ukraine.

Sheremet wrote on his Facebook account on July 17 that journalists in Russia who do not follow the "style of Kremlin propaganda" while covering the ongoing crisis in Ukraine are "hounded."

He said his bosses had been contacted repeatedly by the Kremlin to complain about the tone of his coverage.

Sheremet, who is a native of Belarus, wrote that "my position on Ukraine remains unchanged, as I consider the annexation of Crimea and support of separatists in Ukraine's east as a bloody venture and a fatal mistake of Russian politics."

In April, he took part in the Ukraine-Russia: Dialogue congress in Kyiv, which was organized by outspoken Kremlin critic and former Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.