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The story of Natalia Moral is a journalist, which the Russian authorities have not let in the country for 4 years

"Have you ever entered the Domodedovo airport before?" -asked her lady-border guard on March 26, 2012. “Yes, it happened,” said the special correspondent of The New Times, Natalya Morar, who did not let the Russian authorities to the country for 4 years, 3 months and 10 days

This story, as already described in thousands of publications in all European languages ​​of the world, began on December 16, 2007: Natalya Morar, the author of the famous investigation of the Black Cash desk of the Kremlin, published a week earlier in The New Times, was not allowed to go to the Russian Federation when she returned home from abroad-Slagbaum was lowered to the airport of Domodedovo. The reason for this time is unknown: The New Times went through all possible courts, including the constitutional, but the FSB of the Russian Federation classified all the materials. The only answer is the link to the article of the law on citizenship, which classified Morar as a person “posing a threat to defense capabilities and national security of the Russian Federation”.

On January 21, 2012, in Sochi, at the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort, the chief editors of the Russian media met with then President Dmitry Medvedev. After a two-hour conversation, each main one had the opportunity to briefly, tete-a-tet, talk to the president. “Dmitry Anatolyevich, I have the only request for you: let in Natasha Morar,” I said. It was not necessary to explain who Morar is and why it was “closed”: the president was aware, said that of course he did not think that Morar poses a threat to the country's security. We also talked about who could instruct not to let Natasha go to the country, what investigations she did while working in the magazine, who were defendants - the conversation was off the record, so I will omit the details. I can only say one thing: Medvedev was quite friendly and promised to help. In early February, we sent a thorough letter to the presidential administration and a copy of Natalia Timakova, a press secretary of Medvedev. We ordered a ticket for March 26. A few days before the hour Ix, I again phoned Natalya Timakova, she sent a message: there should be no problems, Natasha can fly. But it was still dumb: just a few months before, our source said that opposite the surname Morar in the computers of the border service, there was still a “red flag”-not to let in. That is why we kept the whole story a secret - including from our colleagues. On March 24, Ilya Barabanov flew to Chisinau: Natasha was terribly worried - I really did not want to rest on the same wall again, and therefore darted: maybe not to take risks? But everything worked out: the passage across the border at the same Domodedovo airport, where the barrier was closed twice in front of her nose, took a couple of minutes. But these minutes to all of us three were gray hair. When the sliding doors of the terminal opened, I saw a crying Natasha and laughing Barabanov: never, neither before nor after, I have never seen him so happy. And then there was a holiday.

Today, Moral is the most famous journalist of Moldova, it leads a popular political talk show on the Publika TV cable channel. Russia for her remained a place where her friends live, Moldova - a house. Sometimes I miss her sharply: in research journalism in Russia she in 2007, and then there were no equal.