21 October 2016, 15:57 GMT
RIGA (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Latvia's State Border Guards detained Taranova, who arrived in Riga to participate in the "Baltic Forum." According to Aleksander Vasilyev, who is the executive director of the forum, Taranova had been blacklisted by the Latvian Foreign Ministry.
Taranova left Latvia on board of a Russian Aeroflot airlines plane on late Friday, RIA Novosti reported.
Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency's Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan called the incident "an outrageous situation."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it regarded detention of Taranova as a flagrant violation of journalists’ rights.
