The organizers of the "Slavic Bazaar" forced Russian journalists to leave the festival

A number of Russian media representatives who received accreditation from the Belarusian Foreign Ministry were forced to leave the Slavyansky Bazar festival in Vitebsk ahead of schedule due to the inability to work. This is reported by the NSN portal.

According to the correspondent of the publication, she received confirmation of accreditation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus on the morning of July 14, which gives her the opportunity to come and film the events of the festival.

"I arranged an interview with the artists, went to the opening of the festival, I was added to the chat rooms where the organizers communicate with journalists. But when I came to the opening of the international press center, bureaucratic "football" began: after a tedious run around remote check-in desks, it turned out that the NSN was not on the lists for the opening ceremony of the Slavyansky Bazaar. And since I am not on the lists, it is no longer possible to put me there, and in general, I cannot carry out activities on the territory of the Slavyansky Bazaar," said Svetlana Klyuchkina, special correspondent.

The Foreign Ministry only answered all questions that the journalist could work on the days of the "Slavic Bazaar" in Belarus. According to Klyuchkina, Russian journalists were blocked not only at the opening of the festival, but also at other events.

"Somewhere the Russian media asked to go outside and we were always informed that the press center was open, but in fact it was closed… Such confusion and overlays happen at many events, but initially everything was very strange. They were not allowed to record interviews with speakers, they were not even allowed to attend press approaches," she stressed.

Klyuchkina suggested that the organizers "reinsured themselves wherever possible," while Belarusian journalists did not have similar problems.

"It's strange: then why give accreditation and invite Russians, then to deprive us of the opportunity to shoot, write, and so on," the journalist wonders.

As a result, the representative of the publication was offered to buy a ticket to the festival, as an ordinary spectator, while it was no longer possible to conduct journalistic activities after going to the festival on a ticket. The publication decided to leave the event ahead of schedule.

The Slavyansky Bazar Festival was founded in 1992 as a musical bridge between Belarus, Russia and In 1998, the festival was renamed the International Festival of Arts "Slavic Bazaar in Vitebsk". The famous festival logo — cornflower — was invented by Moscow artist Alexander Grimm. According to the author's idea, the petals of the flower resemble the arrows of microphones, and the stem smoothly turns into a musical string. For a long time, its own comic currency, cornflowers, operated on domestic venues and for accredited stars. She could be paid in festival cafes. Within the framework of the festival, there is a vocal competition, as well as a children's competition. Since 2021, Ukrainian artists have not taken part in the festival, although before that it gave many representatives of Ukraine a start in life.