You are the ones who rain, and Morar is the faithful

The most discussed news of the last day is Natalya Morar. Or more precisely, the fact that the New Times journalist was not allowed into Russia and, apparently, is not going to be allowed. They don't want to explain the reasons either. On Sunday night, Morar, returning from a business trip to Israel, was detained at Domodedovo airport. The journalist was informed that she was prohibited from entering Russia on the basis of Article 27 of the federal law “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and the procedure for entering the Russian Federation.” At first, border guards wanted to send Natalya Morar back to Israel, despite the fact that her Israeli visa had expired. Only after the intervention of fellow journalists was Natalia allowed to buy a ticket for the next flight to Chisinau, where her parents live.

That our borders could not be freer could be seen over the past few days: on December 12, Kasparov’s wife was not released from the country, and on December 13, the leader of the “It’s Time” movement, Andrei Sidelnikov, and he was presented with an official document from the FSB prohibiting travel abroad. Now, as Ekho Moskvy reports, Sidelnikov has finally reached London and is asking for political asylum in the UK. Even Oleg Kashin, known for his loyalty, had problems - the border guards told him that there was a “black list” of extremists in the world who were not ordered to be allowed in or out.

Natalya Morar's fellow journalists intend to seek her return to Moscow - we are talking about collective letters and statements to special authorities. Natalya’s colleague at The New Times, Ilya Barabanov, is organizing the public protest. The unpleasantness of the situation is that Natalya is a citizen of Moldova, and according to the law, a number of bodies - the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - can decide that it is “undesirable” for a particular non-citizen to stay on Russian territory. That's all. According to the same law, government agencies are not obliged to explain their decisions to anyone. We just don't like you, get out.