Travel Ban for Russian Oppositionist Lifted after EU Condemnation

Russia’s Federal Bailiff Service cancelled its decision to include liberal opposition leader Boris Nemtsov on the list of persons banned from exiting Russia.  In connection with a libel case filed against Nemtsov by oil tycoon Gennady Timchenko, a Russian court directed Nemtsov to publish a refutation of the following phrase from his book “Putin. The Results. 2010”:  “Old friends of Putin who had been nobodies before he came to power - Gennady Timchenko, Yuri Kovalchuk, the Rotenberg brothers - became dollar billionaires.” Nemtsov published a refutation, as directed, but added a heading: “Concerning Gennady Timchenko – a co-owner of Gunvor company.”  Federal bailiffs found that the heading failed to conform with the court's order, and prohibited Nemtsov from leaving the country until he fully complied with the judgment. After that decision, the European parliament adopted a resolution concerning Russia's democratic process which, among other things, condemned the Nemtsov travel ban.  Russia’s Foreign Ministry promptly blasted the EU's resolution as “a blatant method of interference in our internal legislative process”, but the bailiffs nevertheless cancelled Nemtsov's travel ban the same day.

http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/1674388
http://rt.com/politics/russia-blasts-resolution-elections/
http://www.ljplus.ru/img4/s/o/solidarity_rus/element-791169-misc-oproverg-_1_.jpg (refutation)