Kiev - Ukraine on Friday banned a senior Russian official from its territory, marring a visit by an Orthodox Christian leader aimed at promoting inter-ethnic harmony in the region. Ukraine's national spy service the SBU declared Russian MP Konstantin Zatulin persona non grata, making his presence illegal in Ukraine for a year.
Zatulin, an outspoken proponent of reunification for part or all of Ukraine with Russia, would if allowed into the country "create the potential of inter-ethnic and inter-confessional conflict," an SBU statement said in part.
The entrance block also applied to Konstantin Frolov, a Zatulin advisor. Zatulin, among other reponsibilities, heads up the Russian legislature's committee on the CIS, an agency devoted to coordinated foreign and economic policy among former Soviet states.
Zatulin and Frolov's ban came on the first day of a visit by Patriarch Bartholomew I, the titular head of the Orthodox Christian church, who was arriving in Ukraine for the first time ever.
Zatulin by midday Friday was being detained by Ukrainian border troops in Simferpol airport in Crimea, awaiting a flight back to Moscow.
The Russian MP called the detention "a conscious provocation ... made by anonymous persons without any justification."
The Kremlin reacted quickly to the Friday incident, calling Ukraine's ambassador to Russia into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow to explain why Zatulin was not allowed into the country, Interfax reported.
Ukrainian authorities banned Zatulin once before, from June 2006 to June 2007, for public remarks arguing Ukraine should not be an independent country.
Zatulin was the second high-profile Moscow-based politician to have his entrance blocked by Ukraine's authorities in recent weeks.
Yury Luzhkov, Moscow's mayor, was banned from Ukrainian territory last month for declaring Ukraine's Crimea peninsula "pure Russian territory ... which must be returned to our control."
Relations between Kiev and Moscow have deteriorated in recent years due to energy disputes, increasing Russian international assertiveness, and a pro-NATO stance by Ukraine's government.
Patriarch Bartholomew was in Ukraine to participate in ceremonies marking the 1,020th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity into the region.
