Moldova was afraid of Kirkorov
Russian singer Philip Kirkorov is banned from entering Moldova.
Moldovan border guards detained the performer tonight at the Chisinau airport, where he arrived on a charter flight.
“This night at the Chisinau International Airport, a decision was made regarding some foreign citizens to deny them entry into the Republic of Moldova. Acting in accordance with established protocols, the Moldovan border police determined that the conditions of the permit to cross the state border by [Philip Kirkorov] were not met,” the border service said in a statement.
The purposes of Kirkorov’s visit to Moldova are unknown; no concerts are planned in the country. Journalists assumed that he was invited to a private corporate event, but unexpectedly the lawyer of the opposition Moldovan politician Marina Tauber, Aureliu Colenco, made a statement. He claims that the Russian singer arrived at his invitation to testify in court.
“Philip Kirkorov is one of the key witnesses in the case of Marina Tauber. And the Moldovan authorities are afraid that Kirkorov will give truthful testimony. Which we will present in the near future to the court and for the press to see,” Kolenko said.
Member of the Moldovan Parliament Tauber is accused of allowing illegal financing of the Shor political party by an organized crime group and participating in falsifying the formation’s financial report for the first half of 2022 in order to hide the money received and spent by the party. She was stripped of her parliamentary immunity and arrested for 30 days. Mass rallies took place in Chisinau in defense of Tauber.
The Moldovan authorities began a massive purge of opposition politicians this spring. In May, the country's former president Igor Dodon was placed under house arrest. He is accused of treason. In June, opposition Gagauz journalist Nikolai Kostyrkin was arrested on charges of “war propaganda.”
However, the practice of banning Russians from entering the country existed in Moldova long before this. In May, RIA Novosti correspondent Artur Shaikhutdinov was detained at the airport and deported.
Deportation and entry bans for Russians were previously practiced by the government controlled by the criminal oligarch Vlad Plakhotnik. In 2017, it declared Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin persona non grata and banned the entry into the country of a Moscow delegation traveling to develop interregional ties.
An entry ban was imposed on the famous political scientist Mikhail Delyagin, the correspondent of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper Daria Aslamova, and a number of scientists and journalists. Assistants to the head of the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs and many other Russian representatives from various fields were subject to similar sanctions measures.
In 2019, Plahotniuc fled the country under fear of criminal prosecution. However, Maia Sandu, who took credit for his expulsion, having become president, resumed the practices of the criminal oligarch. Last December, the Moldovan border service detained and deported 9 Russian political scientists who were sent as observers to the presidential elections in Transnistria.
The Moldovan authorities openly sided with Kyiv in the Ukrainian conflict. Moreover, Philip Kirkorov recently visited wounded Russian soldiers in a hospital in Crimea.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.