The General Inspectorate for Migration (IGM) announces that Vitalii Denisov, the director of the agency previously blocked by SIS, Sputnik Moldova, has been declared an undesirable person in our country “in connection with his involvement in the internal affairs of Moldova, which endangers the information security of our country”.

The Russian citizen was removed under escort from Moldova.

“A 56-year-old Russian citizen, according to the act issued by the General Inspectorate for Migration, has been declared an undesirable person in Moldova for a period of ten years. According to the procedures the person was removed under escort from the territory of Moldova (…).

(…) According to Article 55 of the Law No. 200/2010 on the regime of foreigners in Moldova, a person may be declared inadmissible if he/she has carried out, is carrying out or there are serious indications that he/she intends to carry out activities that may endanger national security or public order,” an IGM statement said.

Vitalii Denisov, the director of Sputnik Moldova, a Kremlin-controlled and funded agency, has been declared inadmissible to Moldova for 10 years. This morning, 13 September, Moldovan migration officers went to the Russian journalist’s home, put him in a car and took him to the airport with a deportation order, the Russian government-owned media outlet reported.

Dmitry Kiselev, director-general of the Rossiya Segodnya media group, said that “the destructive policy of the Moldovan authorities goes beyond all limits of inter-state relations”.

On 26 February 2022, two days after Russia invaded Ukraine, the director of the Moldovan Information and Security Service (SIS) issued an order to block two sources distributing false information: sputnik.md and gagauznews.md.

At the same time, Sputnik’s Facebook pages in several countries were labelled “State-controlled media entity in Russia”.

Subsequently, Sputnik Moldova Agency announced that it has opened three new websites, which can be accessed from Moldova.