Discover the Best Books Written by Luke Harding
Luke Daniel Harding (born 21 April 1968) is a British journalist and foreign correspondent for The Guardian. He was based in Russia for The Guardian from 2007 until, returning from a stay in the UK on 5 February 2011, he was refused re-entry to Russia and deported the same day. The Guardian said his expulsion was linked to his critical articles on Russia, a claim denied by the Russian government.
After reversing the decision on 9 February and granting a short-term visa, Harding chose not to seek a further visa extension. His 2011 book Mafia State discusses his experience in Russia and the political system under Vladimir Putin, which he describes as a mafia state.
Harding was educated at the United World College of the Atlantic in South Wales, then studied English at University College, Oxford. While there, he edited the student newspaper Cherwell. He worked for The Sunday Correspondent, the Evening Argus in Brighton, and then the Daily Mail before joining The Guardian in 1996.
He has lived in and reported from Delhi, Berlin, and Moscow and covered Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya wars. In 2014 he received the James Cameron prize for his work on Russia, Ukraine, WikiLeaks, and Edward Snowden. In 2007, The Guardian retracted one of his articles for containing the text "substantially similar to paragraphs" in another "article, published in May, in The eXile."