LONDON (Reuters) – Russia said on Wednesday it would take further measures against British media based there, after London imposed sanctions against Russian state-controlled news outlets.
Britain last week announced sanctions on 14 Russian people and entities including the state media organisations behind the RT and Sputnik news channels, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss saying President Vladimir Putin’s “war on Ukraine is based on a torrent of lies”.
Russia Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova singled out Truss in a lengthy attack on British “oppression” of Russian media.
“The only thing Liz Truss has achieved as of today… is that corresponding, mirror image, symmetrical measures – call them what you will – have been taken against British media here in Russia. Have been taken and will be taken,” Zakharova told a news briefing.
Russian authorities blocked the website of Britain’s BBC on March 16 in what Zakharova said at the time was just the beginning of Moscow’s response to an “information war unleashed by the West”.
On Tuesday, a Russian parliamentary commission drafted a law under which news organisations from countries deemed to discriminate against Russian media could have their operations promptly shut down.
(Writing by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
