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Russia’s VGTRK Media Group journalist expelled from Ukraine

According to Tamara Nersesyan, she was taken into a car and brought to the border with Russia

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. A correspondent of Russia’s VGTRK Media Group has been expelled from Ukraine, Rossiya-24 TV Channel reported on Tuesday.

"VGTRK special correspondent Tamara Nersesyan has been expelled from Kiev. She is already on her way to her editorial board. As soon as she can, she will tell in detail about everything that has happened to her and also about the claims the Ukrainian authorities have made to her," the TV Channel said.

In July 2017, under the pretext of "countering the interference of the ‘aggressor country’ into the domestic media space and localizing threats in the information sphere," Ukraine’s Security Service expelled journalist of Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 TV Channels Mariya Knyazeva who is working for TV under the pseudo-name of Savushkina.

VGTRK correspondent Tamara Nersesyan told Rossiya-24 TV Channel she had been denied the right to enter Ukraine for a period of three years.

"I was detained in the street and immediately taken to the main office of the Security Service [of Ukraine] where I was questioned for three hours," the VGTRK journalist said.

"They immediately seized my phone and did this very rudely with the twisting of my arms. After the questioning, they read out a decision by Ukraine’s Security Service that I would be deported and would be denied the possibility of entering Ukraine for a period of three years," Nersesyan said.

According to the journalist, she was taken into a car and brought to the border with Russia. After that, Nersesyan was told that she should walk on her own to the Russian border point deep at night.

As the VGTRK journalist said, she drove for about eight hours to Moscow in a car, which the Russian border guard service had given to her.

According to Nersesyan, she was deported for her reports, which allegedly "posed a threat to security and the territorial integrity of Ukraine."

The VGTRK journalist added that the TV Company’s operator "continues to stay in Kiev and the issue of his further fate there is now being decided.".