The former Doxa journalist was kept in a cell in Serbia for 40 hours

Serbian border guards did not allow Natasha Tyshkevich, a former Doxa journalist who was persecuted in Russia, to enter the country based on a document issued by Germany. Tyshkevich herself wrote about this on Twitter. According to her, she was in the cell for those subject to deportation at the Belgrade airport for about 40 hours.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia did not respond to the request of the Balkan Service of Radio Free Europe about why the Russian activist was not allowed into the country.

According to Tyshkevych, she flew to Belgrade from Malta on August 7 on a foreigner’s passport issued by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs last year. She does not have a Russian passport – it was confiscated by the Russian authorities as part of the investigation of the criminal case against Tyshkevich. In 2021, she, as well as three of her Doxa colleagues, became accused in a criminal case of appeals to minors to participate in actions in defense of Alexei Navalny. Tyshkevich was sentenced to two years of correctional labor. All four pleaded not guilty. Tyshkevich managed to leave Russia.

In a conversation with the Balkan Service of Radio Free Europe, Tyshkevich called her detention and imprisonment a violation of human rights. According to her, there was no point in it, since she could not leave the transit zone of the airport. According to her, the policemen threatened her with imprisonment, and they did not give her products in her cell.

On August 9, Tyshkevich was deported to Malta, from where she went to Germany, where she lives.

On July 13, without explanation, the Serbian authorities denied entry to activist Petr Nikitin, and on July 25, they denied the extension of a temporary residence permit to St. Petersburg opposition activist Vladimir Volokhonsky.