Russia has barred the Guardian's Moscow correspondent from the country, the British daily said Tuesday, in a Cold War-style expulsion possibly linked to his involvement in the WikiLeaks cables. Russian officials remained tight-lipped on the reason for the expulsion of Luke Harding but reports said that a branch of the Russian security services had specifically demanded that the journalist be banned from entering Russia.
Harding flew back to the Russian capital at the weekend after two months in London reporting on the contents of the US cables, given to his paper by the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. But he was refused entry when his passport was checked on arrival and after 45 minutes in an airport cell was sent back to Britain on the next available plane, according to the Guardian.
Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said that "this is clearly a very troubling development with serious implications for press freedom." "Harding was not allowed to enter Russian territory on the demand of one of the Russian (security) structures," a security source told the state-run RIA Novosti agency, saying his name was on a list of undesirable persons.
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