In February 2011, the Federal Migration Service stopped me when I flew back to Moscow. My visa was annulled and I was deported. A border guard informed me: “For you, Russia is closed.” In 2022, my persona non grata status was confirmed when the foreign ministry published a list of twenty-nine UK nationals banned from Russia. It included five colleagues, among them the Guardian’s editor in chief, Katharine Viner. Similar lists were published for North America, featuring the former U.S. ambassador to Moscow Michael McFaul and 398 members of Congress.
