Russia will be forced to take retaliatory measures if France continues to aggravate the situation on the media issue. This was stated in the comment of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova in connection with the plans of the French Foreign Ministry to review the accreditation procedure for Russian journalists, TACC reported, quoted by FOCUS.
The diplomat pointed out that Paris's statements about alleged acts of harassment and the insecurity of French journalists in Russia reflect "the melancholy traditional for the Western mainstream".
"All this is another blatant lie. 33 employees of nine French media outlets who work permanently in Russia feel great in Moscow. Unlike the authorities of the republic of "freedom, equality and fraternity", no one is restricting their participation in major media events, depriving them of already issued accreditations, or freezing their bank accounts," she said. "If the French authorities escalate further, we will be forced to respond."
According to Zakharova, the claims that for the first time in 70 years of Russian-French relations, journalists have been deprived of accreditation do not stand up to criticism. "So, in 1983, Paris unleashed a new witch hunt and expelled two accredited journalists from the country, accusing them of espionage (the L'affaire Farewell case). "But what is really happening for the first time in 70 years is France's support for neo-Nazism in Ukraine, just as for the first time under the leadership of a French citizen, UNESCO failed to cope with the tasks assigned to the organization in the field of ensuring the safety of journalists, and the Director-General Audrey Azoulay herself became an accomplice in the war unleashed by the West against the truth," the representative of the Russian diplomatic service concluded.
Earlier, the French Foreign Ministry announced that it planned to review the accreditation procedure for some Russian journalists.
Zakharova said that the Russian Federation officially informed the French side that it was forced to take retaliatory measures if Paris did not reconsider its decision. She added that the draw fell on Le Monde's permanent correspondent in Russia, Benjamin Quesnel, "whose accreditation simply requires a technical extension," noting that "there is no political subtext in this choice."