Russia’s Deputy Health Minister Oleg Salagay was turned away at Copenhagen airport en route to a World Health Organization conference in Denmark.
“O. Salagay, State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Health, was supposed to attend this event. However, he was refused entry to Denmark at Kastrup airport,” the Russian embassy in Denmark wrote on Telegram. Condemning the incident, the embassy demanded an apology from Danish authorities.
The Danish foreign ministry is investigating the matter, according to local media.
The WHO conference is a regional meeting on “applying behavioral and cultural insights for health” and takes place in Copenhagen from September 12 to 14.
The refusal comes on the back of a battle between Denmark and Russia over the number of officials working at each other’s embassies.
During the visa negotiations for employees of Denmark’s embassy in Moscow, Russia repeatedly filed visa requests to Copenhagen to fill the Russian embassy there with “undeclared agents” or spies, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen told the news website DR earlier this month.
The Russian embassy in Copenhagen now has until September 29 to reduce its staff to five diplomats and 20 administrative and technical staff, to bring it in line with the Danish embassy in Moscow, Rasmussen added.