BBC Journalist Leaves Russia For British Self-Exile
NDTV
The Kremlin has repeatedly said that journalists and media outlets designated as foreign agents can continue their work in Russia.
An investigative journalist for the BBC's Russian-language service in Moscow said in a video released on Monday that he had felt compelled to leave Russia for self-imposed exile in Britain due to what he called unprecedented surveillance.
Russian authorities designated Andrei Zakharov a "foreign agent" in October, a decision the British broadcaster said at the time it strongly rejected and would try to overturn.
The designation was the latest twist in a crackdown on media outlets that the authorities in Moscow see as hostile and foreign-backed.
Separately, BBC journalist Sarah Rainsford left Russia in August after Moscow refused to extend her permission to work in what it said was a tit-for-tat row with Britain over the treatment of foreign media.
