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Deported Guardian journalist says will be sorry to leave Russia

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Luke Harding, the Moscow correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian, said on Wednesday he would have to leave Russia after his visa expired in May.

Luke Harding, the Moscow correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian, said on Wednesday he would have to leave Russia after his visa expired in May.

"I will be sad to leave. I was planning to stay here for two more years. But, unfortunately, it is impossible now," Harding said in an interview with the Moscow-based Ekho Moskvy radio station.

Harding, 42, was refused reentry to Russia on February 5 after being absent from the country for two months. Russia said the decision was because he had not followed accreditation procedures. Harding returned to Moscow on Saturday.

He said that the Russian Foreign Ministry told The Guardian that Harding should leave Russia in May.

Harding said he did not know the exact reasons behind the decision, but noted that his articles had angered the Kremlin.

"I was told that my articles are wrong... that it would be better for me to leave Russia. I said that my duty was to reflect the real image [of Russia] and that I don't want to leave," the journalist said.

Harding was first informed that his accreditation would be withdrawn in November last year, but was allowed to stay in Russia until May 2011 after protests from the British government.

The journalist was issued an extended certificate for foreign correspondents but he did not collect it before he went to London.

A source in a Russian law enforcement agency said earlier that Harding was blacklisted as a person whose presence in the country was "undesirable."

Harding was responsible for reporting on U.S. diplomatic cables leaked to The Guardian by WikiLeaks, including allegations that Russia under the rule of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has become a "virtual mafia state".

The journalist wrote on his Twitter blog on February 7: "The Russians have been unhappy with my reporting for a while. But it seems WikiLeaks may have been the final straw."

MOSCOW, February 16 (RIA Novosti)

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