Russia has asked a BBC journalist working in Moscow to leave the country by the end of the month in retaliation for what it calls London’s discrimination against Russian journalists working in Britain, state television reported late Thursday.
BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford will have to leave Russia at the request of the authorities, Russian state television, Rossiya 24, announced late Thursday (August 12), calling the decision a “symbolic expulsion.” Without identifying a source, the channel explained that the visa of the British journalist expired on August 31 and that it would not be renewed.
“To have me deported from Russia, where I have spent almost a third of my life and from where I have worked for years, is devastating. Thank you for all your messages of support,” Sarah Rainsford wrote on Twitter.
This is, according to the TV channel, a retaliation to London’s refusal to grant visas to Russian journalists working in the UK, including those from RT and Sputnik media.
