The detention of RT correspondent Chay Bowes in Bucharest proves to the entire world that the upcoming Romanian election is a “meme,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT in a phone interview on Thursday.

Bowes was detained by the Romanian authorities on Thursday after his plane landed in Bucharest. He was traveling from Ireland to Romania to cover the upcoming presidential election. The vote is a re-run, since the election first round was controversially annulled last year following a surprise win by NATO-skeptic independent candidate Calin Georgescu.

“The Romanian election really is a meme,” Zakharova told RT when asked to comment on Bowes’ detention.

The RT correspondent was arrested despite “not having violated anything, having followed all formal procedures and having crossed the border legally,” she said.

Romanian security personnel were on hand to arrest him before he even exited the plane, she added.