UK Blogger Detained In Baikonur Confirms Release From Custody After Issued Fine

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th May, 2022) UK blogger Benjamin Rich, who was recently detained near a launch pad in the Baikonur spaceport, said on Sunday that the Russian police released him after questioning and handed out a fine.

On Saturday, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said that UK citizen Benjamin Rich and a Belarusian citizen Alina Zelupa were detained during unauthorized passage near the 112 launch pad in Baikonur and taken into custody.

"I've woken up to a load of messages asking me if I'm OK. Apparently people think I'm in a Gulag because of some Twitter post. Basically I was questioned by Russian police for a few hours for going to see the Buran rocket without the special permission and given a �60 ($74) administrative fine just like hundreds of foreign adventurisers before me," Rich said on social media.

The blogger noted that the police treated him well, showed him the closed town of Baikonur and gave a lift to the train station. Rich jokingly admitted that it was "hardly a Gulag."

The UK blogger stressed that he was not arrested, as entering the premises of the spaceport without permission is an administrative offense, not criminal.

Rich is a UK travel vlogger, whose YouTube channel called Bald and Bankrupt has over 3.5 million subscribers. Most of his videos show the post-Soviet states. Zelupa appeared in some of them as his travel companion.