Russia orders Austrian journalist out in response to Austria’s expulsion of Russian journalist

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday it has revoked the accreditation of the chief correspondent of Austria’s public broadcaster ORF and told her to leave the country in response to Austria’s expulsion of the chief correspondent for Russian state news agency Tass.

The ministry said Carola Schneider, the ORF’s Moscow bureau chief, was asked to hand over her media accreditation and leave Russia “in the nearest time.”

It described the move as a “forced retaliatory measure linked to the continuing discrimination of Russian media representatives in Austria,” noting that it followed Austrian authorities earlier this week ordering Arina Davidyan, Tass bureau chief in Vienna, to leave the country.

Two weeks ago, the Foreign Ministry told ORF correspondent Maria Knips-Witting to leave Russia in what it described as a response to Austria’s removal of Tass correspondent Ivan Popov’s accreditation.

Schneider’s expulsion marks the latest move by Russian authorities against foreign journalists in the country.

It coincided with the start of the trial on Wednesday of Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, who has been in custody since his arrest in March 2023 on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government deny.

U.S.-Russian journalist Alsu Kurmasheva was taken into custody in October 2023 for failing to register as a “foreign agent.”

Other foreign correspondents in Russia have faced visa denials.

Eva Hartog, a Dutch journalist working for Politico, was denied a renewal of her visa in August 2023. In March, Xavier Colas of Spanish newspaper El Mundo said he was forced to leave the country when authorities denied him a new visa.

On Tuesday, Moscow responded to the European Union’s decision to suspend the broadcasting activities of Russia’s Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta by banning the broadcasts of 81 European media outlets, including ORF.

“The Russian side has repeatedly warned that politically motivated repressions against Russian journalists and unfounded bans of the Russian media in the EU won’t go unanswered,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.