MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia expelled a journalist on Sunday who had alleged Kremlin malpractice in this month's parliamentary election and tracked funds flowing from Kremlin officials to foreign banks.
Natalia Morar, a Moldovan national who works in Moscow for the small Russian magazine New Times, said she had been told at Moscow's Domodedovo airport that she was being refused entry to Russia on the orders of the FSB security service.
Having returned from a press trip to Israel, she found herself put on a plane to the Moldovan capital Chisinau.
"I am more than confident that the reason for my expulsion is my occupation," she told Reuters from Domodedovo before boarding her flight.
"The final straw, I think, was my article on 'black money' in the Kremlin, which has been financing parties during the election campaign."
New Times's political editor, Ilya Barabanov, said Morar may have been expelled for an article about the murder of the deputy central bank governor, Andrey Kozlov, in September 2006.
"Morar wrote some material about the inquiry into the death of Kozlov that described the withdrawal of large sums of money by senior Russian officials through Discount Bank and Raiffeisen Bank," Barabanov said.
An FSB spokesman declined to comment on the case.
Before joining New Times, Morar worked as a press officer for Garry Kasparov's Other Russia movement, which has organized protests against President Vladimir Putin.
-----------------------------
Global Security - Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti
The Federal Security Service (FSB - Federal'naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti, previously known as Federal Counterintelligence Service - FSK) is the most powerful of the successors to the KGB. In the years since the fall of the Soviet Union, the FSB slowly took on the responsibilities of a number of agencies. Most recently, it absorbed FAPSI, the Russian equivalent of the United States' National Security Agency.
The FSB's power is rooted in the influence of President Vladimir Putin, a former director, and a vast network of former officers that has permeated all sectors of Russian government and society. It is estimated that, among Russia’s
1,000 leading political figures, 78% have worked with the FSB or its predecessors. With this sort of clout at its disposal, FSB carries out intelligence, counterintelligence, counterterrorism, economic crime investigation, electronic intelligence, border control and “social monitoring.”
No comments:
Post a Comment