UK reporter expelled from Russia over Putin coverage

Britain's Guardian newspaper said its Moscow correspondent has been expelled from Russia after he used WikiLeaks cables to report on allegations that Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin had become a virtual mafia state.

Britain8217;s Guardian newspaper said its Moscow correspondent has been expelled from Russia after he used WikiLeaks cables to report on allegations that Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin had become a virtual mafia state.

Luke Harding,who had been back in London for two months to write a book on WikiLeaks,was refused entry by Russian authorities when he tried to return to Moscow last weekend,the papers editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger said Monday.

Hardings Russian visa was revoked and he was put on the next plane back to London after being held in a detention cell for 45 minutes,The Guardian said. No explanation of the decision was offered to the journalist,the newspaper said in a statement,adding that it was trying to establish further details.

This is clearly a very troubling development with serious implications for press freedom,and it is worrying that the Russian government should now kick out reporters of whom they disapprove, Rusbridger said.

Britains Foreign Office said Foreign Secretary William Hague had been in contact with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to seek clarity on the expulsion. We are awaiting a reply, a spokesman said.

Harding had previously been detained in April 2010 in Ingushetia after the visited the Caucasus region,according to the newspaper. The journalist said on Twitter late Monday: The Russians have been unhappy with my reporting for a while. But it seems WikiLeaks may have been the final straw.

The Guardian published an article by Harding on December 1 in which he quoted leaked US diplomatic cables as saying Russia is a corrupt autocracy centered on the leadership of Putin. Expulsions of journalists were more frequent during the Cold War.

Story continues below this ad

The move to ban Harding is the latest episode in a tense period of relations between Russia and Britain dating to the 2006 killing of Kremlin critic and ex-security officer Alexander Litvinenko in London with a rare radioactive isotope.

Russia refuses to extradite the suspect to Britain.

A Russian law enforcement source,speaking on condition of anonymity,told Reuters that Harding has been put on a so-called blacklist of Russias law enforcement structures.

Such lists are normally compiled by the Federal Security Service FSB,the Foreign Intelligence Service SVR,immigration services or federal prosectors.