'Your citizenship means nothing': Blogger and daughter detained at Koltsovo airport

Blogger Alexandra Kotskaya and her young daughter found themselves in an unpleasant situation at Koltsovo Airport. Upon returning to Yekaterinburg from a trip to Kazakhstan, they were detained in the border control area because the child had a birth certificate instead of a passport, as required by new rules that came into force on January 20.

Alexandra recorded a video about the situation. According to her, she did not make noise or argue with anyone, but encountered rude treatment.

«We did not break the law, we came to our country with documents, and we were simply kicked out of the control process when I started asking, »How long do we have to wait?« Without shouting, without bad words, and certainly without swearing. A person came who started threatening me with locking me and Eva in a room for those with document problems. And I stood there saying, »Tell me, how long do we have to wait? We have a small child, we have no food, the water will run out, there«s no charger for the heater,»« the blogger said on her page.

It should be noted that the official channel of the Migration Service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs clearly states that children under 14 years of age who left the country on a birth certificate before January 20, 2026, will be able to return to the country using this document. Alexandra and her family flew out of Russia on January 17. What caused the difficulties at border control is unknown.

The editorial office of E1.RU has sent a request to the press service of the Border Guard Department of the Russian FSB for the Chelyabinsk Region asking for comment on the situation. The news will be updated when we receive a response. The blogger herself, according to her post, plans to file a complaint.

«I tell him (the border control officer), »Do you understand that we are citizens of the Russian Federation, we returned home with all the documents. We left on a birth certificate when the law didn«t exist! Everyone let us through, and now we can»t return home?« And he said, »Your citizenship means nothing.« That at least for this phrase I will file a complaint,» is stated in Alexandra«s post.

In the spring, we reported who Sasha Kotskaya is and how she became famous, and also published an interview with her. In June, she became a mother for the first time.