Representatives of the Imperial House of Romanoff were denied entry into Moldova, as were Russian artists and members of the State Duma.
The Director of the Chancellery of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, Alexander N. Zakatov, contributed to this report.
Alexander Zakatov: “Today our delegation arrived at the airport in Chişenǎu, where we were informed that we had been denied entry into the Republic of Moldova. Besides me, the delegation included Alexander Kravchenko, an advisor to the Chancellery for philanthropic affairs, and Hieromonk Nikon (Levachev-Belavenets), an advisor for the Imperial House’s historical and memorial activities.”
Zakatov added that the purpose of the trip was to visit a number of historic and religious sites, to meet with Archbishop Savva of Tiraspol and Dubossary, and to convey a gift to the Metropolitan of Chişenǎu and all Moldova. There were no political activities planned, nor would their visit in any way violate local laws.
INTERFAX reports that the members of the delegation were forced to surrender their passports to Moldovan authorities on the promise that they would be returned in 15 minutes and that the delegation would be put on the next flight back to Moscow. Instead the delegation was held at the airport for more than 3 hours without their passports and, at the time of this writing, the passports have still not been returned.
In addition, according to RIA Novosti, the Moldovan authorities also denied entry to a group of Russian artists and members of the State Duma, who had come to Moldova to participate in ceremonies marking the 25th anniversary of the Russian Peacekeeping mission in Transnistria. The news agency also reports that the artists were denied entry because they had not properly indicated the purpose of their visit. Moldovan authorities announced that these Russian citizens “were not detained or deported, they were denied entry to Moldova” and sent back on the first available flights.
Among the artists denied entry were Dmitrii Dunaev, Lyaisan Mingazova, Lidiya Muzaleva, and Irina Maslova. Also denied entry was Vladimir Gasoyan, a Hero of the Soviet Union.
It has also been reported that the Vice-Premier of the Russian Federation, Dmitrii Rogozin, has asked the Russian embassy in Moldova to request an explanation of the situation from the Moldovan government. Rogozin himself is planning on traveling to Moldova on Friday. Igor Dodon, the President of Moldova, has described this as an unfortunate incident and has apologized to the Russian visitors.