Ukrainian historian refused entry into Russia

Serhiy Shevchenko, historian, author of books about Solovki and Sandarmokh, has been stopped from taking part in the Days of Remembrance for the Victims of the Terror  in the Sandarmokh Clearing in Karelia.  He was one of a delegation of 28 people from Ukraine travelling to Sandarmokh for annually held memorial events which mark the anniversary of the unleashing of what is now known as the Great Terror on 5 August 1937.

The Sandarmokh Clearing is the site of the mass grave of at least 1111 Solovky prisoners. Many were members of the intelligentsia of almost all nations of the USSR imprisoned on Solovky.  Among them were 290 Ukrainians.  Labelled  “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalists”, those murdered included the neo-classic poet and professor of Kyiv University  Mykola Zerov, the creator of the theatre “Berezil” [“March”] Les Kurbas; the playwright Mykola Kulish; Anton. Ostap and Bohdan Krushelnytsky, the writers Valeryan Pidmohylny, Pavlo Filypovych, Valeryan Polishchuk, Oleksa Slisarenko, Myroslav Irchan, Hryhoriy Elik, Marko Vorony, Myhkailo Kozoriz, Mykhailo Yalovy;  the historians Academician Matviy Yavorsky, Professor Serhiy Hrushevsky; the scientists Stepan Rudnytsky, Mykola Pavlushkov, Vasyl Volkov, Petro Bovsunivsky, Mykola Trokhymenko; the founder of the Hydro-meteorological Service of the USSR, Dutch by origin,   Professor Oleksiy Vangenheim; the Minister of Finance of the Ukrainian SSR Mykhailo Poloz. 

It is not clear what the grounds are for refusing Serhiy Shevchenko entry to Russia.  The border guards say that they are not obliged to provide reasons.

From information at http://gk-press.if.ua/node/7204