Globe and Mail reporter Jane Armstrong was arrested, fined and then expelled from Chechnya “on the grounds that she did not have proper accreditation,” said Reporters Without Borders. Noted a release from the press-rights organization, “Armstrong had accreditation to work in Chechnya, including in areas where counter-terrorist operations are carried out, but the police demanded an additional document she did not have, and therefore claimed that her accreditation was false. The police returned all the documents they initially seized except her accreditation. As well as being expelled, she was ordered to pay a fine of 300,000 rubles (8,110 euros). Apparently Armstrong had gone to Chechnya to do a story on the Chechen people’s history, culture and traditions.

I wonder what, if anything, an earlier story by Armstrong, about journalists being silenced and slaughtered in Russia, had to do with the police arrest and her expulsion?