Russia and Belarus have included Ukrainian journalist Mikhailyna Skoryk in the “black list”. She learned about this during her trip to Minsk.
“Minsk was worth flying to, because there I learned that I was included in the list of persons who are prohibited from entering the Russian Federation. People from the Kremlin’s “black list” are also extremely undesirable in the Republic of Belarus, because it is the “union state”, Skoryk wrote on Facebook.
Since 2015, Mihailyna Skoryk has not been a staff editor, she is currently engaged in educational and analytical activities: she holds seminars and trainings for media professionals, including workshops on resisting hate speech and fighting against fakes. Besides, before the visit to Belarus she consulted with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the safety of the trip.
As Skoryk told belsat.eu, she flew to Minsk from Kyiv on the evening of December 14 to visit her friends and was planning to stay here for five days.
“I calmly passed the passport control, there were no questions to me at the airport. I indicated my Ukrainian mobile number in the migration card. But on Saturday, December 16, I got a phone call from the Frunzenski district police department, a man introduced himself as Artsiom Alyaksandravich and invited me for an urgent talk at the office,” said Skoryk.
In the police department, the inspector informed her that she “is on the list of persons who are prohibited from entering the Russian Federation.”
“He said that in Belarus I am a very undesirable person, I must leave and not come back. At the same time, Russia and the Russian “black lists” were only mentioned in conversation, not in the protocol drafted by the inspector. He also asked if I had anything to do with a terrorist organization … In Ukraine, terrorists are PRD and PRL, I do not really have anything to do with them!” the journalist said.
Skoryk stressed that she did have a deportation stamp put in her passport, she was not asked questions on the border, either. She also did not see the “stop list”, which the inspector spoke about.
She was amazed at what happenned to her, considering the fact that ‘Minsk is positioning itself as a neutral platform’.
Mikhailyna Skoryk intends to appeal her entry to the “black lists” and says that she would like to visit Belarus from time to time.
Katsyaryna Andreyeva, belsat.eu
