Russia closing CBC's Moscow bureau in retaliation for Canada banning Russian state TV
CBC
Russia's Foreign Affairs Ministry said on Wednesday it was closing the Moscow bureau of the CBC and withdrawing visas and accreditation from the public broadcaster's journalists, after Canada banned Russian state TV station Russia Today.
"With regret we continue to notice open attacks on the Russian media from the countries of the so-called collective West who call themselves civilized," ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.
"A decision has been taken to make retaliatory, I underscore retaliatory, measures in relation to the actions of Canada: the closure of the Moscow bureau of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, including the annulation of the accreditations and visas of their journalists."
Zakharova said Ottawa had chosen what she cast as a "Russophobic" path, including censorship of the media.
The Russian Embassy in Ottawa confirmed the development.
Russia last month sanctioned 61 Canadians, a list that included a number of CBC employees as well as other Canadian journalists.
Canada on Tuesday introduced a bill in the Senate that will ban Russian President Vladimir Putin and about 1,000 members of his government and military from entering the country, as it continues to ratchet up sanctions over Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
In March, Putin signed a law imposing a prison term of up to 15 years for spreading intentionally "fake" news about the military, prompting some Western media organizations to pull their reporters out of Russia.
Russian officials do not use the word "invasion" and say Western media have provided an excessively partial narrative of the war in Ukraine that ignores Russia's concerns about the enlargement of NATO and alleged persecution of Russian-speakers.
Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov has repeatedly scolded the West for what he calls an undemocratic crackdown on Russian state media organizations that he says provided an alternative to Western narratives.
Putin casts the war as an inevitable confrontation with the United States, which he accuses of threatening Russia by meddling in its backyard and enlarging the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military alliance.
Ukraine says it is fighting an imperial-style land grab and that Putin's claims of genocide and persecution of Russian-speakers are nonsense.