Natalia Morar
Encyclopedia
Natalia Morari (born 12 January 1984, Moldavian SSR) is a Moldova
n investigative journalist for the Russian magazine New Times
. She was a permanent resident of Russia until she was expelled
in December 2007, presumably for exposing corruption
in Russia. Born in Moldova
, she moved to Russia in 2002 to study sociology at the Moscow State University
, which she graduated in 2007. Morar applied for Russian citizenship, which she was supposed to get in April 2008.
case involving Austria
's Raiffeisen Zentralbank and several top Putin
's administration officials, including FSB Deputy Head Alexander Bortnikov
. According to her, top Russian Central Bank official Andrei Kozlov
had been murdered for pursuing those leads and revoking the license from the implicated Diskont bank.
In mid-December 2007, Morar published an article "The black cash of the Kremlin" in which she described how a vast illegal political fund was used to keep all major political parties in Russia dependent on the central authorities during the 2007 Russian legislative election
.
called on the European bodies to investigate the case. Russia's Union of Journalists also condemned the deportation
. According to Wall Street Journal, she was deported for exposing secrets of the FSB:
A number of journalists has spoken out on account of Natalia Morar case. As put by a popular journalist Oleg Kashin
in magazine Russian Life
:
In February 2008, she married in Moldova a Russian colleague in an attempt to get around the ban, but when she arrived in Moscow, she was not allowed to leave the airport, spending three days in the transit area before returning to Chişinău
.
In March 2008, Morar announced that she decided to complain to the European Court of Human Rights
that several human rights from the European Convention on Human Rights
have been violated: that a family (she and her husband) cannot be separated and not being given water and food during the days she stayed at the Domodedovo airport and for not being notified of the reason why she was refused entry the second time.
The refusal of being granted citizenship was officially explained as being a consequence of a law which denies it to people who advocate "forceful change of the constitutional regime" or who create "a threat to the security of the state".
), Morar and other activists organized a protest in front of the Parliament of Moldova, in relation to the Moldovan parliamentary election, 2009
. They did this using social-networking tools such as Twitter
. She expected no more than 300 people to show up at the flash mob, but as many as 10,000 came to the protest, including the leaders of the major opposition parties.
The following day, protests escalated into a civil unrest
marred with violence. Morar said on her blog that she organized a peaceful protest and she was not responsible for the violence in the protests of the following days. During the protests she urged demonstrators to stop violence.
On April 9, Natalia Morar was officially charged by the Moldovan government with "calls for organizing and staging mass disturbances" and put under house arrest.
On November 11, 2009 all charges have been officially dropped against Natalia Morari, who was accused by the previous government of using social networking websites to organize violent street protests in Chisinau in the spring. Chief prosecutor Valeriu Zubco dropped the charges against Morari and three others, including Gabriel Stati, the son of Moldova's richest businessman.
and if she had been allowed into Russia she would have organized a revolution there. The verse is finished by the words:
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
n investigative journalist for the Russian magazine New Times
The New Times (Russia)
The New Times, or Novoye Vremya , is a Russian language magazine in Russia established in 1943 in the Soviet Union. It is a small, liberal, independent Russian weekly news magazine, publishing for Russia and Armenia. During the Soviet times it followed the official line...
. She was a permanent resident of Russia until she was expelled
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
in December 2007, presumably for exposing corruption
Political corruption
Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by...
in Russia. Born in Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, she moved to Russia in 2002 to study sociology at the Moscow State University
Moscow State University
Lomonosov Moscow State University , previously known as Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be one of the oldest university in Russia and to have the tallest educational building in the world. Its current rector is Viktor Sadovnichiy...
, which she graduated in 2007. Morar applied for Russian citizenship, which she was supposed to get in April 2008.
Investigations
In May 2007 Morar broke open the story about a money launderingMoney laundering
Money laundering is the process of disguising illegal sources of money so that it looks like it came from legal sources. The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and can range in sophistication. Many regulatory and governmental authorities quote estimates each year for the amount...
case involving Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
's Raiffeisen Zentralbank and several top Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's administration officials, including FSB Deputy Head Alexander Bortnikov
Alexander Bortnikov
Alexander Vasilyevich Bortnikov is a Russian official. He is Director of the FSB since May 12, 2008.-Career:In 1975–2004 he worked in KGB and its successors in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg. In June 2003 – March 2004 he was the Chief of the St...
. According to her, top Russian Central Bank official Andrei Kozlov
Andrei Kozlov
Andrei Andreyevich Kozlov was the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation from 1997 to 1999 and again in 2002 to 2006....
had been murdered for pursuing those leads and revoking the license from the implicated Diskont bank.
In mid-December 2007, Morar published an article "The black cash of the Kremlin" in which she described how a vast illegal political fund was used to keep all major political parties in Russia dependent on the central authorities during the 2007 Russian legislative election
Russian legislative election, 2007
Legislative elections were held in the Russian Federation on 2 December 2007. At stake were the 450 seats in the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia . Eleven parties were included in the ballot, including Russia's largest party, United Russia, which was supported by...
.
Expulsion from Russia
After her article on political funding, Natalia Morar was hindered to re-enter Russia by the orders of Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. The International Federation of JournalistsInternational Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Journalists, IFJ, is a global union federation of journalists' trade unions—the largest in the world. The organization aims to protect and strengthen the rights and freedoms of journalists...
called on the European bodies to investigate the case. Russia's Union of Journalists also condemned the deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...
. According to Wall Street Journal, she was deported for exposing secrets of the FSB:
"Ms. Morar had written extensively about alleged corruption in Russia's security services, some of which she said had been leaking incriminating information about their rivals in a power struggle between the groups. This fall, she wrote about a corruption investigation into kickbackBriberyBribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
and extortionExtortionExtortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
allegations against some top officials of the FSB federal security service, the successor agency to the KGBKGBThe KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
."
A number of journalists has spoken out on account of Natalia Morar case. As put by a popular journalist Oleg Kashin
Oleg Kashin
Oleg Kashin is a former seaman and a prominent Russian journalist.-Career:Kashin graduated from the Baltic State Fishing Fleet Academy with a degree in sea navigation in 2001. While studying, he wrote for Komsomolskaya Pravda in Kaliningrad where he expressed rather sharp views...
in magazine Russian Life
Russian Life
Russian Life, previously known as The USSR and Soviet Life, is a 64-page color bimonthly magazine of Russian culture. It celebrated its 50th birthday in October 2006. The magazine is written and edited by American and Russian staffers and freelancers...
:
"Yet a year ago that wasn't the place, and today one can speak about the tendency — movements of unreliable people are not only traced — now law enforcement bodies allow themselves to mess with these movements, deciding without any court statements who can move somewhere, and who should be dealt with... Straight-arrows aren't to bother. At least, straight-arrows themselves are assured in that. They will be sure in that for long — till the very bell in the night when it'll be nobody to call for help. Of course, that sounds much of operetta-style, but the problem really exists and it must be managed."http://www.rulife.ru/index.php?mode=article&artID=439
In February 2008, she married in Moldova a Russian colleague in an attempt to get around the ban, but when she arrived in Moscow, she was not allowed to leave the airport, spending three days in the transit area before returning to Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
.
In March 2008, Morar announced that she decided to complain to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
that several human rights from the European Convention on Human Rights
European Convention on Human Rights
The Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an international treaty to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by the then newly formed Council of Europe, the convention entered into force on 3 September 1953...
have been violated: that a family (she and her husband) cannot be separated and not being given water and food during the days she stayed at the Domodedovo airport and for not being notified of the reason why she was refused entry the second time.
The refusal of being granted citizenship was officially explained as being a consequence of a law which denies it to people who advocate "forceful change of the constitutional regime" or who create "a threat to the security of the state".
Protests in Moldova
On April 6 (part of the 2009 Moldova civil unrest2009 Moldova civil unrest
The 2009 civil unrest in Moldova began on April 7, 2009, in major cities of Moldova before the results of the 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election were announced...
), Morar and other activists organized a protest in front of the Parliament of Moldova, in relation to the Moldovan parliamentary election, 2009
Moldovan parliamentary election, 2009
A parliamentary election was held in Moldova on 5 April 2009. The Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova won a majority of seats for the third consecutive occasion. Turnout was 59.49 percent, exceeding the 50% necessary for the election to be valid...
. They did this using social-networking tools such as Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
. She expected no more than 300 people to show up at the flash mob, but as many as 10,000 came to the protest, including the leaders of the major opposition parties.
The following day, protests escalated into a civil unrest
2009 Moldova civil unrest
The 2009 civil unrest in Moldova began on April 7, 2009, in major cities of Moldova before the results of the 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election were announced...
marred with violence. Morar said on her blog that she organized a peaceful protest and she was not responsible for the violence in the protests of the following days. During the protests she urged demonstrators to stop violence.
On April 9, Natalia Morar was officially charged by the Moldovan government with "calls for organizing and staging mass disturbances" and put under house arrest.
On November 11, 2009 all charges have been officially dropped against Natalia Morari, who was accused by the previous government of using social networking websites to organize violent street protests in Chisinau in the spring. Chief prosecutor Valeriu Zubco dropped the charges against Morari and three others, including Gabriel Stati, the son of Moldova's richest businessman.
Cultural references
Morar is a subject of an ironic verse by Dmitrii Bykov "И это все устроила Морарь!" (And all those were organized by Morar). The poetry deals with the rumours that Morar single-handedly organized 2009 Moldova civil unrest2009 Moldova civil unrest
The 2009 civil unrest in Moldova began on April 7, 2009, in major cities of Moldova before the results of the 2009 Moldovan parliamentary election were announced...
and if she had been allowed into Russia she would have organized a revolution there. The verse is finished by the words:
- Вы ждете утешительной морали? Мораль проста, хотя и не длинна.
- Страна, что может рухнуть от Морари, — действительно великая страна.
- You are waiting for a comforting moral? The moral is simple although not that long.
- The country that can collapse because of Morar - must really be great.
External links
- Morari's blog
- All of Morari articles in the New Times (Russian)
- Exile: the price for defying Putin, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, by Shaun WalkerShaun WalkerShaun Walker was the Chairman/CEO of the National Alliance, a White Nationalist organization from April 2005 to July 2006.-Background:Walker grew up in California. He served in the military and was honorably discharged.-White Nationalism:...
, January 19, 2007 - Interview with Natalia Morari by Grigory PaskoGrigory PaskoGrigory Mikhailovich Pasko is a Russian journalist and publisher of an environmental magazine.-Life:Pasko was born in the village Kreshchenovka of the Kherson Oblast, currently Ukraine, to a teacher's family...