Berlin has denied residence permits to three employees of Russian media outlets and one Russian citizen who is linked to Sputnik's parent media group, Rossiya Segodnya, a spokesperson for the Berlin Senate Department for the Interior, Digitalization and Sports, told Sputnik.
The spokesperson referred to a decision by the Berlin Immigration Office, which is under the jurisdiction of the department. The office referred to the tenth package of EU sanctions against Russia and the first instance court, which accused some Russian media outlets of allegedly seeking to "undermine public confidence in democratic processes."
Rossiya Segodnya’s press service, in turn, said that it currently has no employees in Germany who have received notifications about a non-renewal of their temporary residency card.
The move comes after Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pledged that Russia will respond to the ongoing persecution of Russian journalists in Europe while keeping its best interests at heart. He referenced a recent announcement by Russia's state-run Channel One that the German government told the television channel to close its office, ordering its correspondent and cameraman to leave Germany within weeks.
Peskov accused EU countries of a campaign to "oppress Russian journalists," which includes revocation of broadcasting licenses and refusals to renew accreditation. "This is what freedom of speech looks like in Europe," he pointed out.
In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry revoked the accreditation of two employees with the German ARD broadcaster and ordered them to leave the country in what it described as a tit-for-tat move to German authorities targeting two Russian journalists.
The EU has imposed sanctions on some major Russian media outlets, banning them from broadcasting on the territory of the bloc. Head of the European Federation of Journalists, Ricardo Gutierrez, called the ban a dangerous precedent that threatens freedom of the press. The Russian Foreign Ministry slammed sanctions against Russian media outlets as a disregard for obligations to ensure media pluralism.