Journalist Nick Kolyohin was removed on Tuesday from the Israeli prime minister's flight on the official Wing of Zion plane to Washington, which was set to depart Tuesday ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump. Kolyohin told ynet that “Shin Bet officers approached me and told me I was not getting on the flight.”
Kolyohin is an independent Israeli-Russian journalist who works for Russian and international media outlets, including television channels in India and Poland. He had registered for the trip and was added to the WhatsApp group of journalists accompanying Netanyahu on the flight to Washington.
“Like everyone else, I passed all the checks, boarded the plane, put my carry-on in the overhead bin and my bag on the seat, and then went down with everyone else to film the prime minister’s arrival,” Kolyohin recounted.
Journalist Nick Kolyohin's stand up in front to the prime minister's plane
(Video: Courtesy of Nick Kolyohin)
“A Shin Bet officer approached me while I was filming a stand-up for Russia’s Channel One near the boarding gate, just moments before the prime minister arrived. He told me to stop filming and then asked me to come with him to the plane to remove my belongings for an additional security check. I told him I wanted to film the prime minister’s arrival along with all the other reporters and photographers, but he said my belongings needed to be checked first,” he said.
“They took me to a tent next to the plane and conducted a thorough search of my belongings, as if I had a bomb in there,” Kolyohin said. “After that, Shin Bet officers came up to me and told me I was not boarding the flight and was being sent back to the airport because they needed to check my connections. I completed full IDF combat service in Yahalom and in combat intelligence, and then served in the reserves until the COVID period. I immigrated to Israel from Moscow at the age of nine, and now they’re treating me like an enemy and a second-class citizen. Just like the Rabbinate checks immigrants from the former Soviet Union, it seems the Shin Bet does the same.”
Kolyohin has covered major international events for various television networks, including the Trump–Putin summit in Alaska, and has previously reported on a prime ministerial visit to Washington. “I spent 10 years as a reporter and editor at Channel 2 and Channel 10. My last position was science, environment and technology correspondent and deputy editor of Channel 10’s main news edition,” he said. “Since 2017, I’ve been working as a freelancer, broadcasting for media outlets around the world.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement: “Security authorities decided today not to approve the journalist’s participation on the prime minister’s flight to Washington, for security reasons that cannot be detailed at this time.”
In another response, the Shin Bet said: “In accordance with the service’s mandate and responsibilities under the law, the service is tasked, among other things, with securing the prime minister. Within this framework, decisions are made to reduce risk to the prime minister and to information in his vicinity. By their nature, it is not possible to address the reasons underlying individual decisions.”