The journalist was notified on this decision by Moldova's authorities on his arrival at Kishinev airport, reports the Vesti.ru web resource, which is part of the VGTRK media holding (All-Russia State TV & Radio Company).
«When we had arrived, we passed through a long examination. It was a tough procedure: they shook up all our things, asked us to produce our passports, asked how many times we have been to Moldova. They demanded that we produce our reporters' ID cards. They said if we did not do that and they found the documents on their own, we would face lots of problems," said Dmitri Kaistro.
After that, he added, border service agents took away the journalists' papers, and «half an hour later, following several other check-ups and a cross-examination," they were told the cameraman was free to go, but Dmitri Kaistro was declared persona non grata until 2019.
«Last November we gave broad coverage of the parliamentary elections here. There were hard talks with me back then. I wrote letters of explanation on what I was doing there, although this was my work and I had been sent there by my TV channel," said the journalist.
As already reported, Moldova's Coordination Board for Broadcasting had made the decision to suspend the broadcasting of the Russia 24 TV channel, which is part of the VGTRK. The Moldovan authorities had already suspended the broadcasting of this channel last summer.
This March a VGTRK camera crew, which went to Gagauzia to cover the elections, was not allowed to enter Moldova. Besides, the director general of the Russia Today news agency, Dmitri Kiselyov, and the VGTRK reporter Andrei Kondrashov were refused to entry to the country.
