By Tom Balmforth
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Friday it would respond in kind if Germany moved to end a dispute over their respective media outlets, but would escalate the row further if Berlin chose to do so.
Russia said a day earlier it was shutting down German broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s operations in Moscow and stripping its staff of their accreditation in a retaliatory move after Berlin banned broadcasts by Russia’s RT DE channel.
Deutsche Welle staff were due to hand back their accreditations to the foreign ministry on Friday. The broadcaster said in a story on its website that its Moscow team had stopped work early on Friday.
The media dispute has soured relations between Russia and Germany at a time when ties are already under strain over the timing of the launch of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which requires a green light from a German regulator.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is due to visit Moscow on Feb. 15 and hold talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking about the media dispute, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, told her weekly news briefing that the ball was now in Germany’s court.
“If Germany escalates, we will respond in the same way. If Germany goes for a normalisation of the situation, we will respond in the same way, we’re just as ready to normalise the situation,” said Zakharova.
Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, said Putin and Scholz would discuss the row when they met. He said Russia would be ready to cancel its decision on Deutsche Welle if Germany changed its stance on RT DE.
Irina Filatova, who works for Deutsche Welle’s Russian service in Germany, said Russia’s decision had been “a huge shock” for staff.
“We clearly expected some measures after RT was banned in Germany. But we never expected that these retaliatory measures by the Russian authorities would be so hard,” she said.
A German government spokesman has described the move against DW as “purely political”.
Germany’s MABB media watchdog and Commission for Licensing and Supervision (ZAK) of media institutions said this week that RT DE could not broadcast in Germany using a Serbian licence.
Zakharova said RT was facing mounting pressure in several countries in the West, and that Moscow would respond against any British moves against Russian media outlets.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Osborn)
