On January 16th, Moldovan border guards refused to allow journalist and TV host of the Russian NTV television channel, Irada Zeynalova, and Ukrainian journalist and media expert, Roman Shutov to enter the country, as reported by Newsmaker.md.

Zeynalova flew to Moldova at the invitation of President Igor Dodon, and Shutov, at the invitation of the US Embassy.

The press service of the Border Police said that the Russian journalist was on the Istanbul-Chisinau flight.

"She was unable to provide documentation of the purpose of her visit, she stated that is was a planned official visit, but she did not submit any documents or an invitation," the Ministry explained.

On the same day, the program director of the media monitoring organization, Detector Media, Ukrainian journalist and media expert, Roman Shutov, was unable to enter Chisinau as well as he posted on his Facebook page.

He said that he flew to Chisinau at the invitation of the US Embassy in Moldova, to conduct training for journalists.

"At the border control checkpoint, they immediately took me to the office - well, they always interview me there, I guess I’m on the list. We talked for 15 minutes, they photographed the program details. I waited for four hours and was notified of the refusal, explaining that I did not substantiate the purpose of my visit. Neither the program for the event, the invitation from the embassy, nor the active presence of the Moldovan partner in the airport security office served as a justification," Shutov wrote.

According to him, neither he nor his Moldovan partners were able to protest this decision. The press service of the US Embassy in Moldova confirmed to Newsmaker that the Ukrainian journalist Shutov was not allowed into the country. The Department of Culture and Press of the US Embassy invited Roman Shutov to hold a discussion on combating external propaganda. For further details the press service advised to speak with the government of Moldova.

  Moldova, Russia

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