VGTRK journalist Olga Kurlaeva has been returned to Russia. Latvian authorities expelled her from the country. The reporter was taken by bus and handed over to Russian border guards late at night.
Natalia Goncharova will talk about why Russian journalists in Riga are perceived as a threat to national security.
The Burachki border crossing point. It was here that the Latvian border guards brought by bus in the middle of the night the VGTRK journalist Olga Kurlaeva, calling her a threat to national security. There were different deportation options discussed. The first one was humane—to send her to the airport. Olga said she was ready to leave the country on her own. However, the Latvian side preferred a second, more humiliating option — to take the journalist to the nearest border crossing. During the deportation, Olga was given an unofficial reason for the deportation from the country.
Olga Kurlaeva, VGTRK journalist. "Most likely, the deportation was due to the fact that a request came from Lithuania that I should leave the country, and they expelled me in a dirty, underhanded way, as now, they’re showing my film, our film on the Rossiya 24 channel, The Owner of Lithuania".
The border guards behaved politely and clearly felt embarrassed, as Olga says herself. This isn't surprising because everything was fine with the documents. A working Schengen visa was issued, and according to it, Olga has the right to visit any EU country. It’s evident that the expulsion campaign was planned in advance.
Olga Kurlaeva: "They followed me. They took pictures of how I was eating in some restaurants, through the window, they approached me and asked questions. We were clean, I didn’t do anything illegal. What caused such anti-Russian prejudice?"
The border service officers visited Olga in the hotel in Riga in the morning. They told me to go with them. The reasons for the visit weren’t explained. First, the correspondent was barred from communicating, they even wanted to prohibit communication with journalists. Olga also asked to meet with the consul, and she was also initially denied it. From the hotel to the police station, then back for 10 minutes to gather her belongings, and then to the pre-trial detention center. More precisely, to a temporary detention facility for foreign citizens.
Olga Kurlaeva: "I'm sitting in a closed block. That is, there are two blocks here, you can move freely in one, and I’m in the closed one".
Olga Kurlaeva came to Latvia on a working visa, but the trip was touristic. The journalist didn’t have any equipment. However, on January 2nd, the Latvian police spoiled the vacation. Law enforcement officers also had a problem with Olga's husband, Anatoly Kurlaev. It turned out that he had a three-year ban on entry to Riga, which the journalist himself didn’t even know about. Anatoly works as a producer on TVC. But he went on this trip exclusively as a tourist and didn’t engage in professional activities.
Anatoly Kurlaev, Olga Kurlaeva's husband: "They came up, introduced themselves, took my passport and said: "Come with us to the police station." They explained nothing. We got there, and it turned out that I’d had a lifetime ban on entering Riga since 2015. I, accordingly, didn’t know about it, I’d managed to go there three times since 2015. Last time, I was there three months ago".
After the issues with her husband, Olga decided to start working and make a film about Russophobia in Latvia. She had accreditation and a visa, which meant that Olga had the right to shoot the material any day. She strictly observed all requirements, including the ones of the law enforcement services.
Maria Zakharova, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs official representative, gave her assessment of this situation: "It’s quite obvious that the Latvian authorities, with the silent support of Brussels, are pursuing the goal of completely cleaning up the country's information space from any media undesirables. The stories about 'combating threats to national security' look like the totalitarianism times of the 1930s in Spain and Germany. Officially, Riga directly and grossly violates its international legal obligations in the field of ensuring freedom of expression, violating the fundamental principles of the UN, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe".
While the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is trying to achieve justice at the level of international institutions, a request was sent to Brussels for the cancellation of Olga Kurlaeva’s Schengen visa.
Natalia Goncharova, Grigory Podgorny, Vesti.
