Russian expelled The Guardian Moscow correspondent Luke Harding for violating regulations governing the work of foreign correspondents in the country, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
Harding, 42, was refused reentry to Russia at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Saturday after being absent from the country for two months. His visa, valid until May 31, 2011, was annulled and he was put on a plane back to Britain.
"He violated a number of rules governing the work of foreign correspondents, which were approved by the Russian government in 1994 and which all journalists are well familiar with," the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
The ministry said Harding was refused entry because he failed to obtain a new accreditation card before leaving Russia in November.
"If Harding is still interested in working in Russia until his entry visa expires, he needs to have accreditation issues settled with the Russian Foreign Ministry's press and information department," the ministry said.
A RIA Novosti source in a Russian law enforcement agency said earlier on Tuesday that Harding was blacklisted as a person whose presence in the country was "undesirable."
Harding has fallen foul of the Russian authorities on a number of occasions, mainly for filing articles claiming Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has a $40 billion offshore account. The journalist was also briefly detained while reporting last year from the volatile North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia.
A law enforcement source told Reuters on Tuesday that Russia put Harding on a blacklist after he failed to ask for permission to enter an area of the North Caucasus where federal forces were conducting a counter terrorist operation.
Harding was also responsible for reporting on U.S. diplomatic cables leaked to The Guardian by WikiLeaks, including allegations that Russia under the rule of Vladimir Putin has become a "virtual mafia state".
The journalist wrote on his Twitter microblog late on Monday: "The Russians have been unhappy with my reporting for a while. But it seems WikiLeaks may have been the final straw."
Harding told RIA Novosti on Tuesday that the Russian Foreign Ministry's explanations were ungrounded.
Reporters Without Borders said earlier on Tuesday it was "deeply disturbed" by Harding's expulsion.
"This is a heavy-handed attempt to get journalists to censor themselves and to prevent impartial coverage of what is happening in Russia," the press freedom organization said in a statement.
MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti)
