Russia announced this Tuesday that it prohibits the broadcast and access from its territory over the internet to 81 European media outlets, four of them Spanish. The measure is the response to the restrictions adopted on May 17 by the Council of the European Union against three Russian media outlets – the Agency RIA Novosti and the newspapers Izvestia and Rossískaya Gazeta– and which came into force today, Tuesday.

The list published on its website by the Russian Foreign Ministry includes the websites of the EFE Agency (efe.com) and The country, The world and Spanish Television. Regarding the media in 25 countries of the European Union (EU), “response measures are introduced to limit broadcasting and access to their resources on the Internet from the territory of the Russian Federation.”

The statement highlights that the restrictions are adopted against media that “systematically disseminate information unreliable information on the progress of the special military operation“, as the military campaign deployed in Ukraine since February 2022 is known in Russia.

These are some affected media

Among the 81 media affected are also newspapers such as the German newspaper The Time and the magazine Der Spiegel; the Italians La Stampa and The Republic; the portuguese Public; the french Le Monde and Liberation; or the dutch magazine Algemeen Dagblad.

It also includes television channels such as the Italian RAI; the french LC1 and Art; the irish RTE; the portuguese International RTP; the dutch Us or the Austrian ORF; in addition to the Radio France station. In addition to EFE, the agencies whose access in Russia will be restricted are the French Agence France-Press and Agence Europe.

Russia’s explanations

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that it had repeatedly warned at different levels that ““politically motivated harassment” to Russian journalists and the “unfounded” ban on Russian media on the territory of the European Union “would not remain unanswered”.

Moscow emphasizes that, since Brussels chose to choose the path of “escalation”, it thus forced the Russian authorities to adopt “symmetrical and proportional measurements“The responsibility for this development lies solely with the leaders of the EU and the countries that support the bloc,” he said.

In mid-May, the Foreign Affairs spokesperson, María Zajárova, warned that her country was going to take retaliatory measures against Western correspondents on its territory if the EU restricted the work of Russian media. “Until now they felt our love, now they will also have to feel our retaliation,” she said at a press conference.

He recalled that Moscow “will respond suddenly and in an extremely painful way for Westerners.” “If even one Russian media outlet is subject to unfounded restrictions, it will rebound on their colleagues here in Russia. I’m referring to Western journalists,” she added. Since the beginning of the war, Russia has restricted foreign journalists’ access to activities organized by the Russian state and in some cases did not extend work visas for some Western correspondents.