Court in Ingushetia fines and expels US woman out of Russia

By the ruling of the Nazran District Court of the Republic of Ingushetia (RI), Mack Shannon Lie, a US citizen, who has broken the sojourn regulations of the Russian Federation (RF), was fined and expelled from the country.

According to the statement of the Department of the RF's Federal Migration Service (FMS) for the RI, an examination was held and revealed that the US citizen Mack Shannon Lie who had her visa to go from Baku to Moscow made an illegal flight to Vladikavkaz, from where she then came to Nazran, where, as the court has established, "she was engaged in assessing the efficiency of the projects fulfilled by the International Non-Commercial Organization (NCO) "International Salvation Committee" (ISC), although, according to the documents, she had arrived to Russia on invitation of the NGO "MAT" situated in Moscow.

Sources from the Migration Service assert that Mack Shannon Lie failed to present any evidences to the court confirming her ties with the ISC or NGO "MAT".

The FMS Department for Ingushetia also reported that currently active measures are being taken in the Republic on the issue of illegal stay of foreign citizens in the territory of the Russian Federation.

Special attention is given to the missionaries who, as the workers of the Migration Service assert, by disregarding the Russian legislation try to act contrary to officially declared aims of their stay in the country. Besides, in the context of high unemployment in the Republic, the presence of migrants engaged in illegal labour activities there is same pressing.

Besides, the Department officials have noted that only in April 2008, as a result of checking passports, they detained 6 citizens of Uzbekistan and 9 citizens of Azerbaijan who stayed in the RF territory without proper permits and were engaged in illegal labour.

The IA "Regnum" reports that according to the current legislation the above persons, together with their two employers - Russian citizens, were brought by the FMS Department for the RI to administrative responsibility in the form of fines.

Earlier, the "Caucasian Knot" has informed that on April 21 Canadian journalist Jane Armstrong, a correspondent of The Globe and Mail newspaper, had to leave Russia. On the eve of her departure, Ms Armstrong was fined by 300,000 roubles and was ruled to immediately leave the territory of Chechnya.

It is stated in the press release of the Regional Public Movement "Chechen Committee for National Salvation" (ChCNS) that the aim of the Canadian journalist's arrival to Chechnya was to study the life, customs, traditions, history and culture of the Chechen people.

The ChCNS' statement notes that Jane Armstrong possessed all the required documents: she had an accreditation, issued by the RF's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on journalistic activities in the territory of Chechnya, including the zone of counterterrorist operation.

Meanwhile, the employees of the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) and FMS in the Chechen Republic asked for some other special document attached to the accreditation, which was not in place, therefore they found Ms Armstrong's presence in Chechnya to be illegal.

In the opinion of the human rights organization, the incident with the Canadian Jane Armstrong is "a fact of rough and shameful violation not only of the fundamentals of Caucasian hospitality, but also of the general Russian hospitality towards a foreign guest who had been allowed by that very Russia to visit it."

Another similar incident happened in December 2006, when Christoph Wanner, a journalist of the German broadcasting company Deutsche Welle was deported from Chechnya. In the opinion of Chechen law enforcement bodies, the German journalist had breached regulations of behaviour in the counterterrorist operation zone.

Christoph Wanner had thought, like other western journalists, that no official escort is needed to a person willing to make a travel to Chechnya: "Under democracy and absence of the state of emergency, journalists shall have the right to move freely." However, the Chechen FSB Department explained that the German journalist should have notified, according to the regulations on counterterrorist operations, the local authorities and law enforcement bodies about his arrival to the Republic, and later travel only under their escort.