Kommersant FM correspondent was not allowed into Ukraine

Natalya Suvorova was heading to Kyiv by train, but border guards refused her entry, citing the fact that the correspondent did not have enough money on her. Natalya Suvorova told the host Maxim Mitchenkov the details.

Photo: Evgeniy Nadalinsky, Kommersant / buy photo

Early presidential elections will take place in Ukraine on Sunday. Earlier it became known that an RBC correspondent was not allowed into the Donetsk region - without explanation. The day before, journalist Ilya Azar was expelled from Ukraine: he allegedly did not confirm the purpose of his trip. The famous blogger Ilya Varlamov was also not allowed into the territory of Donbass.

- Natasha, tell me the details, where are you now, and why did they take you off the train?

— Now I have already returned to Moscow, literally half an hour ago the train arrived back at the Kyiv station. They took me off the train for the official reason that I didn’t have enough money with me to enter Ukraine. The fact is that I had 6 thousand rubles in cash, as I said, plus there was money on the card. But, as it turned out, they immediately started demanding papers: if there is no bank statement, then, they say, we won’t let you in. Since the border guards who removed from the train were unable to prove anything, it was completely useless to explain this at the border point in Konotop, since they no longer listened to anything.

— Did the border guards already know that you were a journalist, that you were going to cover the elections, or why were they picking on you?

“In fact, several people were taken off this train for the same reason.” There were few of them, but nevertheless. A young man was traveling as an election observer from Russia, a girl was just a tourist who had never heard of any elections, and I was traveling as a journalist. But, in fact, there was absolutely no difference, since we were all asked to write an explanatory note first. I refused to write it because I didn’t understand at all why I was taken off the train. After that, we were given a paper that certifies that entry was denied due to lack of funds. As I was told, means such as SMS or electronic balance are not documents, and they don’t want to look at it.

The foreman at the border checkpoint stated that his brother was deployed from the Czech Republic because he did not have any confirmation with him at the border, you see. Well, apparently, today I and several people suffered for the brother of a Ukrainian border guard.

“Didn’t they tell you how much money you had to take with you in order to be allowed through?”

- They said that it should be 800 hryvnia per day, that is, it is about 2400-2500 rubles, but, for example, a woman was traveling next to me for three weeks, that is, it turned out to be a really quite large amount, and having it with you in cash, to put it mildly, it was unsafe, well, that is, she was not in any way. The fact that I had this money on my card with me again did not interest anyone.

— Were there any other reasons why they took you off the train or just because of the money?

— I understand that money is now the most common reason, however, in the end they also told me that I had no confirmation from any friends who were inviting me... In general, they just needed an official document from someone in parallel to money plus a return ticket, that is, another person seated there was told that he did not have a return ticket, among other things.

I had a return ticket, but that didn't help. In fact, I think that this policy is a bit selective, since the people who were traveling with us on the same train said that no one checked their amount of money.

— Did they ask about the purpose of your visit to Ukraine?

— We were, of course, asked more than once about the purpose of the visit.

— As soon as the border guards begin an inspection, check, the first thing they are interested in is the purpose?

— Yes, the first thing they ask is the purpose of the visit. But I was going to live with my friends, and not in a hotel, I reported this and said that I was a journalist, in the end this only gave rise to more doubts. They said that your goals are unclear, again they demanded papers, they demanded some kind of confirmation, and then... But the official reason was that there was not enough money.

- But they just took you off the train, or were there other searches, searches, or something like that?

- No, in principle, there were no inspections or searches, again, I repeat, no one checked the amount of cash I had, we were all taken and put in a small reception area at the border checkpoint in Konotop, where we sat for almost 7 hours. And only at 12 o’clock Moscow time the return train arrived, after which we were escorted onto it, gave our passports to the head of the train and only the Russian border guards in Suzemki returned them to us - this is the first border point that the train passes after the Sumy region.

— Some new marks appeared in the passport, no?

- You know, Maxim, I was so exhausted by this that I didn’t even look. But I was traveling on a Russian passport, so, in principle, there cannot and should not be any marks on it. I’m opening it right now just to make sure of this, just in case. Yes, I don’t see any marks here, and that’s how it should be, in principle.

“Apparently, I and several other people suffered for the brother of a Ukrainian border guard.”