DODON-INVITED MOSCOW LADY JOURNALIST DRAGGED OUT OF AIRPORT AND DISPATCHED TO BUCHAREST

Well-known Russian journalist Darya Aslamova, who came to Chisinau on Tuesday evening to take President Igor Dodon’s interview, was not permitted to enter the Republic of Moldova territory.

Already on Wednesday morning, Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP), a very popular Moscow newspaper having one of the biggest circulations in Russia, published the article of its staff correspondent Aslamova, in which she described the Tuesday’s incident in the Chisinau airport, where she produced President Dodon’s written confirmation of his waiting her for an interview.

However, the presidential paper did not produce whatever impression on the Passport Control employees in the airport or on the squad of submachine gunners who were staring at her. Then a border officer said laconically: “Entry to Moldova is closed for you”, the uniformed guys dragged her out of the place despite the woman’s efforts to explain something, and forced her into an airplane bound for Bucharest.

President Igor Dodon expressed indignation about a new expulsion of a Russian journalist. He wrote on his Facebook page: “This is a new inimical step made by the Moldovan Government with respect to our strategic partner – the Russian Federation”.

“Our Russo-phobic chauvinists from power corridors are violating all thinkable limits. Nowadays, each Russian journalist coming to Moldova must produce a personal written invitation to be received from Chisinau in advance. Meanwhile, all journalists from the Romanian mass media, waging anti-Moldova, anti-State activities, feel free to come here and work in Moldova without a hindrance”, wrote the Moldovan President.

Igor Dodon is convinced that “this new anti-Russia demarche was organized by the Government of Moldova in the run-up to my working meeting with President Vladimir Putin to take place in Sochi (Russia) on October 11 – “deliberately to spoil the atmosphere of the Sochi meeting and complicate the Moldo-Russian dialog”.

“By Wednesday noon, I will receive full information about the motives of Darya Aslamova’s deportation. My interview with her shall take place in the nearest future at any rate – here or in Moscow”, stated Igor Dodon.

And the supplement publication “KP in Moldova” wrote on Wednesday: “Aslamova has agreed on taking an interview with President Dodon, and she had his written consent on hands. However, the KP correspondent was being eagerly waited for at the Passport Control by several armed ‘guerillas’. They pinioned the fragile woman as if she were a bandit, and said only that entry to Moldova was not for her, then dragged her out of the place and eventually shoved her into an airplane bound for Bucharest. Those men did not introduce themselves or showed whatever documents”.

Aslamova herself stated to the press that while in Bucharest, she received a telephone call from the Moldovan presidential press service, which confirmed that entry to Moldova was really blocked for her by the incumbent authorities.

“If you somehow manage to cross the Moldovan border, President Dodon will give you an interview. That’s all we can do for you. Your personal data have already been sent to the Border Police”, said the caller.

The Moldovan Border Police stated today that “this is not indeed a prohibition” and that Aslamova was not permitted to enter the country because “she did not indicate the purpose of her visit”.