(Reuters) – British YouTube travel blogger Benjamin Rich, who specialises in distant and generally harmful elements of the world, has been arrested at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the top of the Russian house company Roscosmos stated on Saturday.
Dmitry Rogozin stated in a web-based submit that Rich – whose Bald and Bankrupt channel has 3.53 million followers – and Alina Tseliupa had been detained close to one of many launch pads at Baikonur, which Russia rents from Kazakhstan.
Local authorities had been figuring out “the precise stage of participation in unlawful actions” by the pair, stated Rogozin, who posted images of Rich’s visa and Tseliupa’s passport. Some of Rich’s movies characteristic a girl referred to as Alina however it was not instantly clear whether or not she and Tseliupa had been the identical individual.
The most up-to-date video on Rich’s channel was filmed in Syria and posted on April 24. In an Instagram submit final week, Rich stated “Syrian suntan and again in a rustic with Soviet mosaics” however didn’t specify the place he was.
In London, Britain’s international ministry didn’t have a direct remark.
Baikonur, as soon as a closed Soviet metropolis, is now open to vacationers who apply for permission from Roscosmos. It lies within the steppe round 1,100 km (680 miles) southwest of the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
