Moscow praises this decision
Ukraine`s embassy in Moscow has issued an official notification to the Russian Foreign Ministry that the government in Kyiv has lifted a ban on entering the country for the member of the State Duma, Konstantin Zatulin, who earlier fell out of favor with Ukrainian officials, a source at the ministry said, according to ITAR-TASS.
Moscow praises this decision as a fruitful step, he said.As UNIAN reported earlier, on July 25, 2008, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the refusal to allow Zatulin onto Ukrainian territory was "a flagrant manifestation of an unfriendly attitude toward a prominent public figure and member of the Russian parliament."
Zatulin, along with outspoken fellow MP, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, was earlier listed as a persona non grata by Ukrainian authorities after his involvement in 2006 protests in the Crimea against joint NATO-Ukraine Sea Breeze military exercises in the Black Sea. He also called the presence of U.S. troops in Crimea "illegal under Ukrainian law."
According to media reports, July 24, the first deputy head of the Russia Duma committee for CIS Kostyantyn Zatulin was detained in Symferopol by the Ukrainian security service and banned entry in Ukraine. On his arrival, Zatulin was met in the airport by SBU officials who showed him a document banning his entry in Ukraine. On the same day, Zatulin left for Moscow.