Russia apparently wants to expel BBC journalist from country

There is an ice age between Great Britain and Russia: a Russian spy was arrested in Potsdam earlier in the week. Now Moscow apparently has not extended the visa of the BBC journalist.

British broadcaster BBC One of its female correspondents has been expelled Russia Strongly condemned. The BBC’s Director-General Tim Davey said on Friday: “The removal of Sarah Rainsford is a direct attack on media freedom.” Russian state television previously reported that the journalist had until the end of August to leave the country. The expulsion is a response to British policy towards Moscow.

Rainsford is “an extraordinary and fearless journalist,” Dewey said. You have provided an “independent and in-depth research report on Russia and the former Soviet Union”.

“Expulsion represents a turning point”

Television broadcaster Rossia 24 told no source that the British journalist’s visa expired on August 31 and would not be extended by order of the authorities. “The expulsion represents a turning point,” commented a reporter for the news channel. measurement is according to pressure, in which Great Britain Practiced on Russian media.

In 2019, British broadcaster Ofcom fined Kremlin-affiliated broadcaster RT 200,000 pounds for serious “unilateral” reporting of a poisoning attack on former double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, UK in 2018. Conflict in Syria. In return, the Russian Broadcasting Authority launched an investigation into the BBC coverage. Syria conflict Feather.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Sakharova only indirectly confirmed the state television report about the expulsion of the British journalist. “The representatives of the BBC recently went to the State Department, everything has been explained, so they can tell everything,” she said on the Telegram messenger service. “Don’t be shy,” she added to the BBC. The ministry spokesman said that in the past, Russia had condemned the “insult” that London had inflicted on Russian correspondents in Great Britain when issuing visas.

very strained relationships

Russian officials have repeatedly criticized Western reporting on Russia publicly and regularly denounces articles or reports as anti-Russian. However, expulsion of journalists is rare.

This year, officials intensified their crackdown on the media, non-governmental organizations and Russian political organizations on allegations of alleged animosity towards the government and serving or funding the interests of the West.

Diplomatic relations between Britain and Russia have been extremely tense since 2006, when the former Russian agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko He died in exile in London from poisoning with highly radioactive polonium. London blames Moscow, which denies any responsibility.

London responded to an attempted assassination attempt on Skripal with the neurotoxin Novichok in Great Britain by expelling 23 Russian diplomats, and Moscow followed suit.