Foreign Ministry: Satter for five years is prohibited from entering Russia

For five years, American journalist David Satter is prohibited for five years. This was stated in the commentary of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Such a penalty clarifies, the department clarifies, officials of the FMS imposed on Satter on the basis of paragraph 2 of Article 27 of the Law "On Departure from the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation."

Satter entered Russia on November 21, 2013, receiving a annual accreditation certificate of Radio Liberty in the Foreign Ministry press center, the diplomatic department says. According to the current standards, I should immediately come to the country at the UFMS in Moscow for a multiple visa. The Moscow Corctic station was notified of this, the Foreign Ministry claims.

Nevertheless, Satter turned to the migration service only on November 26 and received a refusal to multiple visa "on the basis of a gross violation of Russian migration legislation," the commentary said. "In fact, from November 22 to 26, 2013, this US citizen was illegally in Russia," officials say.

On November 29, the Tagansky district court of Moscow found Satter guilty of violating migration rules and sentenced him to a fine with administrative expulsion from Russia. According to the Foreign Ministry, the journalist pleaded guilty. On December 4, he left Russia.

The diplomatic department emphasizes that the case of Sattter is not unique. "At the moment, about 500 thousand foreign citizens are closed to the territory of Russia for a period of 3 to 10 years for violation of the law for violation of the law," the commentary is closed.

Earlier, the Tagan court has already explained the ban on Satter to enter Russia by violations of migration legislation. Nevertheless, it was not explained exactly what norms the journalist violated.

The fact that Satter is deprived of the right to enter Russia previously informed The Guardian from the words of the journalist himself. He himself is now in London.

Since September last year, Satter worked in Moscow as a consultant to Radio Liberty. In December, he went to Ukraine to receive a new Russian visa. The journalist notified that his request for a visa was approved. However, at the Russian embassy in Kyiv, Satter announced that he was prohibited from entering Russia. “The competent authorities decided that your presence in the territory of the Russian Federation is undesirable,” the embassy employee quotes Satter. The newspaper notes that this is the first such case with an American journalist since the 1980s.

The US Embassy in Moscow protested in connection with the Satter case and unsuccessfully tried to achieve explanations. The American ambassador Michael McFol raised this issue at a meeting with the deputy head of the Foreign Ministry Sergei Ryabkov. The Russian side does not yet give comments.

According to Satter, in the Moscow apartment he had notes and personal belongings. He sent his son to Moscow to pick them up.

In 1976-1982, Satter was the Moscow correspondent of The Financial Times, after which he became a special correspondent of The Wall Street Journal on the USSR. In 2004, he published the book " Darkness at dawn ", in which the theme of explosions of residential buildings in Moscow was raised. Satter himself connects his current problems with this topic.

At the end of September, the Russian authorities refused entry visas to the Dutch photographer Rob Hornster and writer Arnold Van Brugen . They prepared the photo exhibition The Sochi Project, which was supposed to open at the Winzavod. As a result, the exhibition was held in the Sakharov Center and in parallel - in the city theater of Amsterdam.

In February 2011, the journalist of The Guardian Luke Harding was not allowed to Russia . The Russian Foreign Ministry explained the reason for the expulsion by the fact that Harding did not receive the certificate of a foreign correspondent. The head of the Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, added that Harding has repeatedly violated the accreditation rules when working in Russia. Two months later, the journalist was also allowed to return to Russia.

In early 2012, the Russian authorities accused the French writer Ann Niva of violation of the visa regime. She was issued an order to leave the country within three days. However, in the future, the FMS said that Niva could return to Russia.

In July 2010, the photographer Marie Bastashevski, a civilian of Denmark, was denied entry into Russia. For two years, she worked on a photo project called "Article 126 (abduction in the Caucasus)." At the same time, she worked closely with Natalya Estemirova , who died in 2009.