The Russian Foreign Ministry has withdrawn the accreditation of an Austrian journalist and ordered her to leave the country.
This is a reaction to the withdrawal of the permanent accreditation of a Russian correspondent for the state news agency TASS in Austria, the ministry announced on Monday. In return, the ORF correspondent must now leave the country.
ORF's radio and television studio previously had two correspondents, dpa has learnt.
The Austrian ambassador was informed in advance of the impending move and warned the correspondents of the EU country's media that the Foreign Ministry could resort to retaliatory measures. An enquiry to the ORF remained unanswered late on Monday evening.
The TASS employee's accreditation had been withdrawn on April 30, which is why he had to leave Vienna on June 7, the ministry in Moscow added. The Austrian side has not yet justified its discriminatory decision, it said.
The Russian state news agency TASS has foreign correspondents in many countries around the world.
The ministry explained that the Russian side had had no choice but to act in a mirror-like manner.
"In accordance with the principles of media freedom and on the basis of reciprocity, we will be ready to consider the possibility of accrediting new ORF employees in Russia as soon as the Austrian government has created the conditions for the work of Russian media representatives and the TASS correspondents’ office in Vienna is fully operational again," the statement said.