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Fax suspending US visa to journalist was fake - paper

Newspaper journalists intend to send the text of the document to the Embassy on Monday “to further clarify all circumstances of that casus”
Photo ITAR-TASS
Photo ITAR-TASS

MOSCOW, December 15 (Itar-Tass) — The letter suspending the American visa issued to editor-in-chief of Russia’s Komsomolskaya Pravda daily Vladimir Sungorkin was fake, the official website of the newspaper reports.

On Friday, the editor-in-chief received a fax allegedly from the U.S. Embassy saying that the visa issued in September for the period of two years was suspended in connection with the signing of the so-called Magnitsky Act into law by U.S. President Barack Obama.

“Late in the evening we contacted the press service of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and we told that no fax addressed to Sungorkin had been sent from the embassy. Moreover, the contents and the design of the document did not match the standards used by the Embassy,” the report said.

Newspaper journalists intend to send the text of the document to the Embassy on Monday “to further clarify all circumstances of that casus”.

Earkier, Sungorkin told Rossiya 24 television that he had received a fax from the U.S. Embassy “four hours before Obama’s signing the law”. The fax said the Department of State was suspending his entry visa to the United States until further notice.

President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law legislation that grants permanent normal trade relations to Russia. The document, earlier approved by the Congress, annuls the outlived Jackson-Vanik amendment, but at the same time the attached Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act imposes sanctions against persons suspected of violating human rights in Russia.