Adventurer finally stopped in his tracks by Russian red tape

IN THE past eight years, Karl Bushby has crossed the Andes and the Nevada desert, negotiated Colombian jungles and Arctic ice floes, and talked his way out of a Panamanian jail.

But yesterday, the former paratrooper’s attempt to walk around the world appeared to have been thwarted by an even more formidable obstacle: Russian bureaucracy.

A Russian court ruled that Mr Bushby and his fellow adventurer, Dmitry Kieffer, should be deported for walking across the frozen Bering Strait from Alaska without the correct paperwork. They would be fined 2,000 roubles (£40), flown back to Alaska, and not allowed to return to Russia for five years, officials said.

The verdict in effect stopped Mr Bushby, 37, in his tracks halfway through his 36,000-mile (58,000km) trek from South America to his hometown of Hull, which he had aimed to reach in 2009. “Mother Nature could not stop me, but Russian bureaucracy has found a way,” Mr Bushby told The Times from the northeastern Russian region of Chukotka. “It looks like I need to find another job.” He will appeal, but Russian verdicts are rarely overturned.

The two adventurers have only $200 (£110) between them to pay for lawyers, interpreters, food and lodging in the tiny village of Lavrentiya, where they are staying. “Money is becoming an issue, but we cannot just lie down and die,” Mr Bushby said. “It is worth an appeal given how far I have come.”

Mr Bushby, who spent 11 years in The Parachute Regiment, set out from Southern Chile in 1998 with just $500. He met Mr Kieffer, an American endurance runner, in Alaska and they teamed up to cross the 55-mile Bering Strait.

They were detained by the Federal Security Service, the KGB’s successor, on April 1, shortly after reaching Russian soil. Both had business visas, but no permits to enter Chukotka, a restricted border area, and no passport entry stamps.

They aroused further suspicion because they were carrying satellite telephones, GPS navigation systems and a Colt Magnum .44 pistol. “We do not understand why they crossed the state border of the Russian Federation in the wrong place and armed,” General Vladimir Pronichev said.

The two men said that the gun was for protection against polar bears and that they had tried in vain to get the right documentation. Russian television gave them prominent and sympathetic coverage, portraying Mr Bushby as the quintessential eccentric British explorer. But Russian officials appeared unmoved.

“They should have prepared for their expedition more thoroughly and should have notified the Russian authorities of their journey,” Andrei Krivtsov, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said. Yuri Ivanov, a court official, said that they could have been jailed for five years.

The British Embassy said that it was in contact with Russian officials to try to help Mr Bushby to continue his walk through Russia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan to Europe. The embassy is also trying to help to transfer money to Mr Bushby because the local bank is not accepting his credit card. The pair were living with a local priest last week but have now been moved to an apartment.

Mr Bushby’s father, Keith, said that he was disappointed, but not surprised by the verdict. “It brought the expedition to a halt and it reinforced the stereotype about that part of the world,” he said. “They had a chance to open up a chink of light in people’s imagination and they blew it.”

This is how a border should be enforced. Two armed guys in a remote part of eastern Russian wilderness and their border police catch and arrest the guys. They were threatened with prison and told not to even attempt to return for five years. Do you think these two would ever consider going back? That's the approach we need to take. We either need to annex Mexico or start enforcing our border.

Russia is still a very authoritian place, and the area he crossed in is a very important military area to Russia. It just proves that Russia is up to something there, and they don't want us knowing about it.==

You sound like those guys are there to report the military information they able to gather? So that means that those border guard general who didn't believe thier story is right?:)

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