Signs of deletion of information from a mobile phone have been the reason for denying Ukrainian citizens entry to Russia, state-run RIA Novosti reports, citing ‘dozens of court documents’.
In particular, the agency claims that a Ukrainian citizen had erased 5,000 photos and videos and ‘cleared some contacts’.
‘These facts gave grounds for border control officials to conclude that the citizen was concealing his true political views and preparing in advance for border control when entering the Russian Federation,’ one of the court rulings reads.
In another case, a Ukrainian citizen ‘cleaned up the information in chats’, completely deleted the entire gallery on her phone, and hid her viewing history on her YouTube account.
The Agency studied about 10 court rulings in which data deletion is listed as one of the reasons for refusing a pass to the Russian Federation.
In all cases, the Ukrainian citizens tried to appeal against the refusal to enter Russia in court, stating that they had Russian relatives living in Russia and were not going to violate Russian law, but wanted to obtain Russian citizenship. Their appeals were unsuccessful.