The Russian Foreign Ministry has ordered the last correspondent working for Austria’s ORF public radio broadcaster in its Moscow bureau to leave at short notice, ORF reported on Wednesday.
Another ORF correspondent was ordered to leave at the beginning of June.
The Russian authorities justified the move on the grounds that Austria refused to extend the residence permit of the head of Russia’s state-run TASS news agency on June 24. He was ordered to leave Austria within two weeks.
Withdrawing the accreditation of the ORF bureau head was a necessary reaction to Austria’s actions, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Russian media representatives were being discriminated against, it said.
It added that the journalist could return to work in Russia if Vienna allowed TASS correspondents to work again.
The Austrian Interior Ministry said earlier it had reached a “negative security assessment” and withdrawn the accreditation of the Russian correspondents.
ORF said it would seek fresh accreditations, and that in the meantime the two correspondents would continue to report on Russia from Vienna.
“We condemn this unjustified and unacceptable step,” the Austrian Foreign Ministry said in response no the Russian move.
The Russian chargé d’affaires charge had been called in and a protest forcefully communicated, it said.
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