A former journalist for the Russian student magazine Doxa who has been publicly critical of Russian officials has accused Serbian authorities at the airport in Belgrade of imprisoning her for around 40 hours after refusing her entry to the country.
Natalya Tyshkevich told RFE/RL that on August 9 she flew back to Malta and planned to travel from there to Germany, her country of residence.
"It was really a detention that legally made no sense; I could have just waited in the airport," Tyshkevich said. "I had a panic attack in front of the police officers when they showed me the cell, but they shouted and insisted I go inside or they would put me into real prison."
Serbia's Interior Ministry did not respond to an RFE/RL request for details of the detention or why Tyshkevich was turned away.
Tyshkevich said that she traveled from Malta to Belgrade on August 7 using a "passport for tourists" issued to her by Germany after Russian authorities seized her passport as part of a criminal case against her.
Russia has routinely prosecuted people who criticize the invasion, the military, or senior officials in connection with a conflict that Kremlin censors insist is not a war but a "special military operation."
Other Russians who have been critical of the Kremlin or its conduct of the ongoing war in Ukraine have complained of being denied visits or other privileges by authorities in Serbia, whose president, Aleksandar Vucic, has bucked EU pressure to join Western sanctions to punish Russia for the war.
Russian pro-democracy activists in Serbia protested on July 30 following indications that at least two other Russians with anti-war views had faced questionable hurdles to entry or residency from Serbian officials.
In July, Serbia denied an extension of the temporary residence permit of Russian anti-war activist Vladimir Volokhonsky less than two weeks after temporarily denying entry to Peter Nikitin, the Russian national with whom Volokhonsky helped establish the nongovernmental organization Russian Democratic Society.
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Russian Anti-War Activist In Serbia Says Kremlin Is Targeting His Safe Haven
The Russian Democratic Society, a Russian expat association, has grown to include tens of thousands of members since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Tyshkevich is one of four student journalists who worked for an independent Moscow student magazine and were sentenced to two years of "corrective labor" in 2021 for a video in which they defended freedom of assembly for young Russians.
She said Serbian authorities holding her at the airport provided little food during her nearly two-day custody.