Moscow ? A Moldovan investigative reporter who has been banned from Russia since December spent a third day stuck inside a Moscow airport terminal Friday after flying in with her new Russian husband.

Natalia Morar, a reporter with Russia’s The New Times magazine, married a Russian colleague in her native Moldova last week to try to get around the ban, but when they arrived in the Russian capital they were not allowed to leave the airport.

Officials at Domodedovo airport told Morar on Thursday that they would force her to board a flight to Moldova if she declined to go voluntarily. “Yesterday they surrounded us, but we tied ourselves together with a leather strap so that they couldn’t separate us,” she told The Associated Press by telephone.

The New Times has been harshly critical of President Vladimir Putin. Supporters say the decision by the Federal Security Service to bar Morar is tied to her reports on illicit cash transfers to pro-Kremlin political parties.