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Fourteen Russian citizens sent for espionage in Romania have not arrived in Bucharest after the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs revoked their visas, reported today in "Adeverul", quoted by BTA.

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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania announced that with a view to participating in the Conference of Plenipotentiaries of the International Telecommunication Union in Bucharest, all 17 officials named by the Russian Federation were issued visas, but 14 of them were subsequently revoked.

The ministry specifies that the visas of journalists from "Russia Today" "wrongly identified" as Russian officials were revoked.

Through Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Moscow condemned Bucharest's actions.

"Romania grossly violated the Statute and Convention of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), as well as the agreement on organizing the Plenipotentiary Conference," Zakharova said and accused Romania of "carrying out Washington's political order."

The conference is scheduled for the period September 26 - October 14.

Russia claims that Romania's decision is intended to harm the chances of the Russian candidate for ITU Secretary General.

The candidate of Russia is competing with the candidate of the USA, "Adeverul" explains.

The Romanian MFA explained that the decision was made as a result of the fact that, in fact, out of the 17-member Russian delegation that was supposed to attend the conference, 14 were journalists from Russia Today.

Russia provided false professional identity documents to the 14 journalists from the propaganda channel and as a result their visas were revoked by Romania for reasons of national security, reports "Adeverul". 

Russia Today was banned in the EU in the context of the unprovoked and brutal war waged by the Russian Federation in Ukraine.

The TV was created in 2005 because the authorities in Moscow wanted to have a mass media.

The aim was to present Russia as "a different kind of democracy" and highlight the West's shortcomings: inequality, racism and abuse of power, the Romanian newspaper said.

A Russian spy in the Ukrainian parliament received up to $4,000 from Moscow

The former director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Costin Georgescu, claims that the journalists were actually people who intended to carry out espionage operations in Romania, "Adeverul" also writes.

"Information has emerged about their actual status, about the fact that they are persons who work under the guise of journalists from the Russian TV channel. The Russians quite often use so-called journalists in espionage operations, because they have come to the conclusion that thanks to this status have easy access to many institutions in democratic countries precisely because they respect the citizens' right to information. They are either undercover agents or rather collaborators in various missions. I repeat that the use of Russian journalists in espionage actions is frequent a common phenomenon, and their use under the guise of government officials is sometimes part of the scheme used by the Kremlin-led Federal Security Service," said Costin Georgescu, quoted by "Adeverul".

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