Moldovan journalist told she is a threat to the Russian state

The Russian authorities have finally given Natalia Morar, a Moldovan journalist employed in Moscow by the Moscow-based The New Times weekly, a formal explanation for her expulsion a month ago. On 17 January, the Russian consul in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau, Gennadi Birukov, gave her a document with the embassy letterhead notifying her that she is banned from entering the country under article 27, subsection 1, of a 1996 law concerning movements in and out of Russia. It says foreigners can be denied entry to preserve national defence, state security, public order or public health. But Morar still does not know who took this decision or what she is supposed to have done that poses a threat to the security of the Russian state or its population. When Morar returned to Moscow from a press trip to Israel on 17 December, she was told by a passport control officer that she was banned from entering Russia on the orders of the FSB security service, and she was put on the next flight to Chisinau. Read Reporters Without Borders first article about Natalia Morar Читать статью Н. Морарьи на русском языке Read Natalia Morar article “The Kremlin slush fund”, in Russian