UK REPORTER BARRED FROM RUSSIA BECAUSE OF CHECHNYA
Kavkaz Center, Turkey
July 3 2006
Russia has refused a visa to a British journalist well-known for his
coverage of Chechnya and the turbulent Caucasus, citing the needs of
"state security".
Thomas de Waal, who has previously worked in Moscow for the
English-language Moscow Times, the BBC and the Times, said on Monday
he had been due to attend the presentation of a Russian version of
his book on the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
But the Federal Migration Service refused him a visa.
The service was not available for comment on Monday but in its letter
refusing the application, which was obtained by Reuters, it cited
a 1996 law that says a visa can be refused "in the aims of securing
state security".
De Waal said he had cooperated with Russian officials in the past
on Nagorno-Karabakh, a South Caucasus region officially part of
Azerbaijan but ruled by Armenians, and did not believe they would
bar him for his views on the conflict.
"This clearly has to be because of the other main thing that I write
about, which is Chechnya," de Waal, 39, told Reuters by telephone
from London.
Russian officials have been very sensitive about Western criticism of
the war in Chechnya, where they have struggled to crush separatism
for more than a decade, and local journalists have been prosecuted
for sympathising with the rebels.
President Vladimir Putin in 2002 said a foreign journalist critical
of Russia’s policy in the region become a Muslim and be circumcised
"in such a way that nothing grows back".
Russia barred U.S. channel ABC news from Russia after it ran an
interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.
Press freedom groups say Russia tries to intimidate journalists into
only reporting the Kremlin view on Chechnya. A Russian journalist in
February was convicted of provoking racial hatred after he printed
articles by rebel leaders.
De Waal is best known in Russia for appearing as an expert witness for
the defence at the extradition trial of rebel leader Akhmed Zakayev
in London. He said this could be behind his failure to get a visa.
The British court in 2003 declined to extradite Zakayev, giving him
political asylum instead — a move that infuriated Moscow, which
calls Zakayev a terrorist.
"It is possible that the wheels turn rather slowly, or that this is
a cumulative account of things I have done over the last 10 years,"
de Waal said. He last visited Russia in January 2005.