NBCUniversalMedia LLC studio head Jeff Shell was denied entry into Russia, The New York Times reported July 13.

Shell, who had flown to Russia on business, was reportedly pulledout of the immigration line at the airport and detained for several hours. Hewas then put on a flight to Amsterdam. The cause of the action against theexecutive was not clear. However, the incident comes amid an escalation ofdiplomatic tension between the U.S. and Russia, according to the report.

As chairmanof Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, Shell oversees all global filmoperations of NBCUniversal, including Universal Pictures, Fandango, UniversalPictures International, Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and NBCUniversalBrand Development. NBCUniversal is a unit of Comcast Corp.