U.S. Journalist Booted From Russia

With bombings in the region around Sochi, negotiations in Iran and Syria, and pressure over its human rights record, Russia has found time to expel American journalist David Satter without an explanation. Satter, who is a former correspondent for the Financial Times and the author of three books on Russia, was read a statement by a diplomat, which said, “The competent organs have decided that your presence on the territory of the Russian Federation is not desirable. You are banned from entering Russia.” The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a diplomatic protest and sought an explanation, but Moscow declined to give one. The language used in official Russian statement is believed to have come from the Federal Security Service (known as the FSB), the powerful counterintelligence agency, and is language commonly found in spy cases.