Prensa Latina | October 12, 2013
Moscow – A famous Russian traveler and photographer, Konstantin Zhuralev, was captured by Syrian armed opponents while traveling from Turkey to the Sahara by hitchhiking, some of his friends said today through social networks.
A note with a photo of Zhuralev’s passport posted on the internet by the Islamist group Liwa Al Tawhid, claims that he was a Russian spy who was involved in collecting information on the rebels for Russia’s and Syria’s secret services. The message also said footage of his interrogation would be posted soon.
One of his friends, Oleg Patsai, told Lenta.ru that Zhuravlev reached the war zone as part of the program “Alone with the desert,” and at this stage, he was supposed to spend 21 days in the eastern Sahara, but he has been untraceable since late September.
Diplomats from the Russian embassy in Damascus criticized Zhuralev and described him as irresponsible for embarking on such adventure during war time.
Born in 1981 in the Siberian city of Tomsk, Zhuralev is a well known programmer, photographer and blogger.
In 2008, he hitchhiked 18,000 km in three months across the Eurasian Federation, and four years later completed a world tour of 37 countries from all continents except Australia and Antarctica in 777 days.
