The Foreign Ministry has told the German government that the entry ban and deportation of a prominent analyst was a mistake, the analyst, Hans-Henning Schröder, said Friday.
"I was told that I will be able to travel to Russia again as soon as I get an OK from the Russian Embassy," Schröder said by telephone from Berlin, referring to a conversation that he had with Germany's Foreign Ministry.
Schröder, head of the Russia section at the Berlin-based German Institute of International and Security Affairs, spent a night in a deportation cell at Domodedovo Airport late last week after border guards told him upon arrival that he had been blacklisted because he was a threat to national security.
The incident triggered an angry reaction from Berlin, which summoned Russia's envoy to the Foreign Ministry and handed him a protest note.
Spokespeople both at the German Foreign Ministry and the Russian Embassy in Berlin refused to comment Friday.
But Schröder said German officials had told him that the ministry in Moscow had said his deportation was based on "a technical mistake." He said the explanation looked like a face-saving solution.
Schröder, who had come to Moscow to speak at a conference, said he planned to visit the country again next month as a member of the Valdai Discussion Club. He said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was expected to address the annual gathering of Russia experts.
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