An American man who came to Russia 18 months ago on a short-term tourist visa apparently liked the country so much that he stayed on until he was deported for violating immigration law, the Moscow region branch of the Federal Bailiffs Service said Friday in an online statement.
The "illegal immigrant" arrived in Russia on a tourist visa in October 2013, and remained in the country after his visa expired, the statement said. The authorities launched an administrative case against him for overstaying his visa, issued him with a 5,000-ruble ($83) fine and ordered him to leave the country.
The U.S. national ignored the court ruling, however, and was eventually detained last month at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport. Before being deported he was also made to pay two fines totaling 8,000 rubles ($132), the statement said.
This is not the first time that U.S. nationals have been deported for showing reluctance to leave Russia. In April 2014 a court in Russia's central Chuvash republic ordered the deportation of four U.S. citizens who had arrived in the country on tourist visas, subsequently worked as English tutors and failed to leave the country when their visas expired, news website Lenta.ru reported Friday.
The court also found that they had "propagated American values," the report added.
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