Russia expels British journalist

Luke Harding, the Guardian's Moscow correspondent, was detained at the city's airport for 45 minutes while attempting to re-enter the country over the weekend.

He was put on a flight back to the UK by border guards who reportedly told him: "For you Russia is closed."

British Foreign Secretary William Hague has phoned Moscow in a bid to shed light on the removal of Harding. The Foreign Office said it is still "awaiting a reply".

The journalist had been returning from London where he had been working on the WikiLeaks cables when he was stopped in the airport.

His visa was annulled and his passport only handed back to him once he was on a plane heading back to London.

In a tweet, Harding suggested that his work on the leaked cables and their damning assessment of Russia under Mr Putin's rule might be behind his expulsion.

"The Russians have been unhappy with my reporting for a while. But it seems WikiLeaks may have been the final straw."

In another post he wrote: "Extremely sad to leave Russia under these circumstances. My visa valid until end of May."

As part of a series of WikiLeaks articles, he reported on allegations contained in US diplomatic cables that suggested that Russia had become a "virtual mafia state" under former president, now prime minister Putin.