The Foreign Ministry threatened Friday to fine and expel foreigners who visit Chechnya from abroad without obtaining Russian visas.


Nikita Matkovsky, a spokesman for the ministry, said, "We have information that there are foreign businessmen and even tourists in Chechnya who do not have official documents to stay in the territory of the Russian Federation."


"For trespassers, we will use sanctions envisaged by Russian legislation: fines and expulsion," he said. Matkovsky did not specify the nationalities of those foreigners illegally visiting the rebel republic, which Russian troops have entered in an attempt to return it to Moscow's control.


He said the measure was not aimed at preventing foreign correspondents from visiting Chechnya, despite concerns voiced by foreign journalists. Some correspondents have been fired on by advancing Russian troops, but there have been no casualties.


All journalists, including foreigners, who want to visit the breakaway republic must be accredited in Moscow or at a temporary branch information office in Mozdok in north Ossetia, Matkovsky said. "The leadership of Chechnya infringed Russian entry regulations and invited foreign citizens," he said. "Basically, all Chechen borders are open."


Matkovsky said the ministry earlier this month sent embassies in Moscow a note requesting that the they discourage their citizens from visiting Chechnya.


"If foreigners go there the government cannot guarantee their rights and safety," Matkovsky said. This was not a ban, he said, but a "recommendation."


He said the ministry had offered embassies technical aid including charter flights to help remove their citizens but none had sought assistance.


He also said the ministry had sent a note this week to embassies of countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States asking them not to give visas to foreigners who came to their countries and planned to travel on to Russia.