Ukraine allows Russian delegation to pass through air space - lawmaker
MOSCOW. May 10 (Interfax) - Ukraine eventually allowed a Russian official delegation to pass through its air space on the delegates' way back from Moldova's breakaway province of Transdniestria to Moscow after refusing to do so on Saturday, a Russian State Duma deputy said.
The deputy, Alexei Zhuravlyov, told Interfax by phone from the aircraft that was going to take them back home but was still on the ground in Chisinau that the delegates were pondering whether it was worth flying through Ukrainian air space.
"We've come to the conclusion that the Ukrainian authorities contacted their henchmen in the U.S., and we can't rule out the possibility that our plane would be forced to land somewhere in Ukraine," Zhuravlyov said. "We aren't afraid, but it would be wrong to put any advantages into the enemy's hands."
The delegation, which consisted of Duma deputies Zhuravlyov, Sergei Zhigarev, Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and Mikhail Krotov, an adviser to the Duma chairman, had accompanied Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin on a visit to Transdniestrian capital Tiraspol.