Only Russia Can Help: Ernest Vardanyan's Relatives Sent a Letter to Medvedev and Putin

Gyumri-based relatives of Ernest Vardanyan - an Armenian national journalist living and working in the breakaway region of Transdnestria and was recently apprehended for his professional activities - have sent a letter to Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, asking for their personal mediation to change "arrest as a precautionary measure" and to set him free.

"Having no other option under this situation we are turning to you, as inflectional leaders of a world power, and to leading world political figures and humanists, expecting your personal involvement for the change of Ernest Vardanyan's "arrest as a precautionary measure" and his immediate release from the Transdnestrian prison," reads the letter, quoted by Radio Liberty.

Vardanyan's wife, in turn, told the Moldovan service of Radio Liberty that she plans hiring a Russian lawyer to defend her husbands' rights in the court.

"Unless Russian authorities exert pressure on the Transdnestrian authorities, this issue cannot be solved," said Irina Vardanyan, adding that only Russia could be of help.

Vardanyan was arrested near his home in Tiraspol on April 7 allegedly by the Transdnestrian state secrete services. He is accused of high treason and according to Article 271 of the Transdnestrian Criminal Code he may face 12-20 years in prison.