16:50, 5 March 2004

Lord Judd denied Russian visa

The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied a visa to Lord Judd, the former special rapporteur on Chechnya to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. He was to arrive to Moscow to take part in a Peace Prize award ceremony to occur at the Tretyakov Gallery on March 10.

The Prize was set up by a coalition of public organizations named The Yalta Initiative for Peace in Chechnya; it is conferred on public figures for their peacekeeping activities related to Chechen war. Mr. Judd was given a visa at the Russian embassy in London, UK, last week, but embassy officials asked Judd to give his passport back to cancel it later, says project coordinator Ivan Sventsitskii.

They motivated this with the fact that the visa had been issued originally without finalization of this matter with Moscow. "Thus," Mr. Sventsitskii said, "Judd will not be able to attend to support the project aimed at propaganda of peace and support of the peacekeeping movement."

Source: Grani.ru Internet Daily