Ukrainian citizens were denied entry to Russia after deleting messages, photos, and browsing history from their phones before crossing the border, YouTube, reported RIA "Novosti" citing court decisions.
The state agency mentions "one Ukrainian citizen" who erased five thousand photos from his phone before crossing the border, and a Ukrainian woman who "cleaned information in chats" and hid her viewing history on her YouTube account.
The Insider* found the mentioned administrative cases in the court decision database. In February, the Khimki City Court of the Moscow Region considered the case of Inna Gut, who flew from Serbia to Moscow home. She is the wife of a Russian citizen and the mother of children with Russian citizenship. FSB border service officers identified her "recruitment vulnerability in the form of having property in Ukraine, having parents, a sister living in Ukraine," and also "in messengers Telegram, WhatsApp, Viber, the social network Instagram [it was] found that information in chats was intentionally cleaned," "a complete cleanup of the contents was established in the gallery," and "the function of hiding viewing history was set in YouTube." Moreover, the border service found "contacts of SBU officers and Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen" with the plaintiff.
In March, the court considered the case of Yevgeny Dobrokonny, who arrived in Russia to obtain citizenship. As stated by FSB Border Service officers, "during the examination of the respondent's mobile device, a cleanup in messengers Telegram, WhatsApp was established, partial cleanup of content was found in Viber, the number of contacts indicates the deletion of most of them, 5000 photos and videos were deleted from the phone's gallery." In the deleted files, security officers found "photos in support of Ukraine." The deletion of data before the trip allowed border control officers to conclude "the concealment of true political views," "threatening to the Russian Federation."
In all cases where Ukrainian citizens tried to appeal the refusal of entry to the Russian Federation in court, stating that they have Russian relatives living in Russia and do not intend to violate the laws of the Russian Federation, their appeals were dismissed.
* Recognized in Russia as a "foreign agent" and "undesirable" organization.