07.09.2015, Kishinev.
LifeNews channel journalist and cameraman were detained during passport control in the main Moldova airport. Russian TV channel correspondents, Natalia Kalysheva and Aleksey Kazannikov have spent approximately eight hours in the airport transit area. Their passports were taken away from them, instead customs officers have issued them a paper listing allegations according to which the journalists are banned from visiting the country.
Customs officers told the journalists that Moldova had no interest in a Russia TV channel covering events in central Kishinev.
According to Aleksey Kazannikov, the customs officers noticed that Natalia Kalysheva was earlier deported from Ukraine and started joking that they will surrender her to their Ukrainian colleagues, which, considering the attitude towards Russian journalists in junta’s Ukraine, may be interpreted as a threat.
The customs officers have confiscated a flash drive with the news report, claiming that airing the information in the report is banned in Moldova.
Currently the journalists have received their passports back, but with their visas crossed out.
