Foreign ministry spokesman says country is ready to issue a visa so Luke Harding can return after stint in London penning WikiLeaks book
"This is a technical matter and I do not think that it deserves so much commotion, let alone the allegations that were addressed to us. We are sufficiently open and Mr. Harding knows that our interaction has been normal. There is only one universal requirement for all journalists – to follow our domestic laws, not to break them and to be in close contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"When visits are made to restricted regions of the country it is necessary to obtain a special permission. I think that this practice is entirely understandable and should be accepted without any comments."
Guardian News & Media said that it was "baffled" by claims that Harding's deportation was due to administrative errors, saying that the explanation was discredited by the fact that he had been first told of his expulsion in November 2010, but it had been delayed after the intervention of the British government.
In the course of his coverage of the WikiLeaks embassy cables, Harding accused Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin of running the country like a "virtual mafia state" and implied that he was likely to have known about the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko.
The Russian foreign ministry maintains that Harding has violated its internal legislation on a number of occasions.
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