Sputnik Moldova director declared undesirable and expelled from Moldova

Sputnik Moldova Director Vitali Denisov was expelled from Moldova and banned from entering the country for a period of ten years, the General Inspectorate for Migration announced. 

According to a press release of the institution, Denisov, who is a Russian citizen, was declared undesirable in Moldova for a period of ten years and, according to procedures, was escorted from the territory of Moldova. “The removal of the foreigner was ordered in connection with his involvement in the internal affairs of the Republic of Moldova, which jeopardizes the information security of our country,” the authorities explained. 

According to the law on the regime of foreigners in the Republic of Moldova, a person can be declared undesirable if he or she carried out, carries out, or there are strong indications that intends to carry out activities that threaten national security or public order.

“The officers of the Migration Service came to Denisov’s house and, not allowing him to pack his things and take his pets, he was put in a car and taken to the airport with a deportation order to the first flight,” the editorial office of Sputnik Moldova reported on the morning of September 13. The report also said that the deportation order dated back to September 8. 

Sputnik.md was blocked two days after the invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, for promoting “information that incites hatred and war, under the conditions of the state of emergency”. After the Information and Security Service (ISS) requested the blocking of the portal, on the morning of February 26, 2022, Sputnik Moldova agency announced on the same day that it launched three other online portals. Mediacritica later wrote that only a year later the ISS announced that it had requested the blocking of five websites that “publish false information that affect national security,” and those websites were clones of Sputnik.