The State Department said Wednesday it was still looking into why a chairman of a major U.S. movie studio, who also chairs the Broadcasting Board of Governors, was denied entry into Russia and detained for several hours in Moscow Tuesday night.
“We’re still, frankly in the process of sorting through all the details of what happened yesterday or last night,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
Toner said he was “limited” in what he could say about it, but said the department is aware of the event and working to figure it out.
According to the BBG, Chairman Jeff Shell had valid entry documents, but was detained and “locked in a room for several hours,” and was then forced to board a flight to Amsterdam.
Shell is chairman of Universal Filmed Entertainment, part of NBCUniversal, and said he was told he is banned from Russia for life.
“No explanation has yet been given to Shell, or the BBG, for his detention,” the BBG said.
The BBG runs the U.S. government-run pro-democracy radio programs that are broadcast around the globe, and which are often opposed by heads of non-democratic states.
Russian officials said Shell was banned because the U.S. has expanded its own list of Russians banned from entering the United States. Russia said the U.S. decision to expand the list of Russians was a response to tensions over Ukraine.
Toner declined to answer questions about whether Russia has made similar explanations to the Obama administration, and said Russia shouldn’t be reacting to U.S. sanctions by sanctioning U.S. travelers.
“The appropriate response for Russia to any of our sanctions would be to address the concerns on which our sanctions are based, and not to do a tit-for-tat,” he said.
Toner did say his department has been raising questions with its Russian counterparts.
“We expressed our concerns about what happened,” he said. “We’re still trying to sort through the precise details of what happened and why he was refused.”
Shell told the Los Angeles Times that being held in Russia felt like a scene out of one of the spy movies that his studio produces.
“It was surreal and strange, and I did feel like I was in a Jason Bourne movie,” he said.
