Russia bars U.S. journalist from country

[SidDithers]

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/01/14/russia_bars_us_journalist_from_country.html

MOSCOW—Russia’s foreign ministry on Tuesday said Moscow has barred a journalist for the U.S-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from the country for five years over a visa infraction, a charge rejected by the journalist who described the move as “a bureaucratic trickery” to keep him out of the country.

A Foreign Ministry statement said Tuesday that David Satter, who had been working for the broadcaster in Moscow since September, had not applied for an extension of his visa within the prescribed time. Satter said the case was bureaucratic obfuscation and RFE/RL President Kevin Klose said in a statement that barring Satter from entering Russia was a “fundamental violation of the right of free speech.”

Satter returned to Moscow from a trip abroad on Nov. 21 and, according to the Foreign Ministry, was to have immediately applied for an extension of his visa. However, he waited five days to do so, the ministry said. A court on Nov. 29 found him in violation of administrative procedures and ordered him to leave the country. The Foreign Ministry said he left on Dec. 4.

Satter insisted that the Foreign Ministry had promised him that he would be issued a new visa the day after his arrival, but did not provide him with a support letter for migration officials on that day, and then his application was further delayed by a weekend. He said that when he finally managed to visit the migration agency’s office, it declared him in violation of visa rules.

Russia - that bastion of liberty and freedom.

Sid

[jakeXT]

1. We'll never know

Satter had earlier told Britain’s Guardian newspaper that he suspected his expulsion might have been linked to his writing on Moscow’s 1999 apartment bombings that sparked the second post-Soviet war in Chechnya.

Putin blamed that deadly attack on Chechen guerrillas but never provided firm evidence for his case.

But Alexander Litvinenko — an FSB officer turned Kremlin critic who was poisoned after having tea with two Russian agents in London in 2006 — suggested that the bombs were planted by FSB agents who wanted to spark a brief war in Chechnya that could help Putin win the 2000 election.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/01/14/russia-defends-expulsion-of-veteran-u-s-reporter-david-satter/

[msanthrope]

3. Best to remove a critical journalist before the debacle this Olympics will be. nt

[jakeXT]

4. Maybe he could go back and write something about our false flags for the Weekly Standard

http://www.weeklystandard.com/author/david-satter

[msanthrope]

5. Do you have anything feom this decade?? nt

[jakeXT]

7. CNN ?

Satter: Many of the expected visitors do not realize that they are walking into a "war zone"

The inability of the authorities to prevent attacks was on display in Volgograd, he says

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/31/opinion/opinion-russia-terror-sochi/

[msanthrope]

2. I await the Greenwald/Assange/Snowden outrage over this. nt

[William769]

6. Also they are not a police state like the U.S. is!

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Will Thom 'The Voice of RT' Hartmann bother to speak in favor of this journalist?

Doubt it. Thom lust for Putin Bucks, he does not give a shit if Russia murders all the gay people, he will continue to be their voice and face.