Anastasia Denisova, member of HRC Memorial in Krasnodarsky krai, member and correspondent of Youth human rights movement, gave us the following information.

Why I couldn't take part in the HDIM conference - OSCE/ODIHR in Warsaw

I was invited to Warsaw to take part in the event at the days, devoted to tolerance and non-discrimination questions, which are my sphere of expertise. I also ought to have taken part and organize the side-event about Georgian-Russian Civil Dialogue, in which I also take part.

I should have departed 4 October, from the international airport in Krasnodar. But I was unable to do so. Firstly, I was subjected to the most intricate search at the customs, that lasted for 15-20 minutes and included the taking-out and monitoring of every item in my backpack. Then I handed-in my passport to the border police and they studied it and information about me in the database for a much longer time, then usual, but allowed me to pass through. Then came the Service of Aircraft Security, the representative of which - Dombrovskyi Boris Alexandrovich, demanded that I brought my hand luggage backpack to the luggage section. I said that it didn't hold any forbidden liquids and it met the demanded size, but he didn't listen.

I detached the biggest part of my backpack and handed it in to the luggage section. The part of my backpack that I had with me contained only my laptop, a purse and some documents. I tried to pass through the Service of Aircraft Security, but Dombrovskiy started shouting at me, demanding that I checked in my laptop as well. I told him that it would definitely be broken if not taken as a hand luggage, but he didn't listen. He shouted that he had instructions and my laptop is not "transparent". The representative of the border police and Austrian Airlines were on my side, trying to prove Dombrovskyi that laptops had never been forbidden to carry on as hand luggage, that Austrian Airlines don't have any facilities for transport fragile things in a special way, so my gadget would most probably be damaged. Then Dombrovkyi invited them to his office "to show them instructions".

Afterwards, the airlines representative came up to me and suggested an  illegal scheme - I should hand in my laptop, but then he would pick it up and pass it over to me aboard the aircraft. I made sure that this scheme was illegal, he proved it. I refused and asked if there was another way, he said not. So I decided not to do it.

I perceive this incident as well as the incident that happened with me at Abkhazia-Russia border in August 2009 (http://www.memo.ru/eng/news/2009/09/18/1809097.htm) to be the acts of pressure on me due to my civil activity in Krasnodar region and in Russia in general. I also think that the article (newspaper "Kubanskie Novosti" from 30, October, 2009) where I am blamed for the "incitement of hate" because of my monitoring reports about xenophobia in Krasnodar region - is also part of the campaign against me personally, active in Georigan-Russian civil dialogue, and the NGO "ETHnICS" that I am the head of.

Anastasia Denisova, Krasnodar

October 7, 2009

 Source: Memorial