Lithuania slaps pro-Kremlin journalist with ban

Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist Galina Sapozhnikova has been declared banned from Lithuania for five years.

Sources in the country's Ministry of the Interior have told the BNS news service, she was was declared a persona non grata in Lithuania in August.

On September 16, 2015, Sapozhnikova told BNS on she learnt of the decision after flying to the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, on August 26 after from Tallinn.

Lithuania's State Security Department said in a report from 2015, Sapozhnikova, a resident of Tallinn and Moscow, had founded an international media club which was responsible for spreading "Russia's political and ideological provisions" in the Baltic states.

The report added the group organised 11 events in Lithuania in 2013 alone. 

They were attended by pro-Russian political scientists, economists, writers and cultural representatives.

In a report from 2009, Estonia's intelligence service also mentioned Sapozhnikova as a founder of the Impressum press club.

The report stated the group engaged in anti-Estonian propaganda, and had previously invited speakers who supported Kremlin policy.

It added certain members of the group were also nostalgic for the former Soviet Union.

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