The French newspaper Le Monde has reported an unprecedented decision by the Russian authorities: to cancel the accreditation of their Moscow correspondent, Benjamin Quénelle. For the first time since 1957, Le Monde will not have a correspondent in Russia, the country where Quénelle has worked for more than 20 years. He was notified four months ago that his press card had been suspended. Now he has been completely barred from working in Russia.
According to the newspaper, the Russian Foreign Ministry presented this decision as a response to Paris's refusal to issue visas to journalists for the pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. The French side claims that the candidates proposed by Moscow were not journalists, but Russian intelligence officers.
As Le Monde emphasizes, this decision is another blow to the free press in Russia, where independent journalists have to work in increasingly difficult conditions. The publication notes that even during the most intense periods of the Cold War, it continued its work in Moscow and other Russian cities.
Le Monde is urging the Russian authorities to reconsider this decision and assures its readers that it will continue to cover political, economic, and social developments in Russia using all available resources.
According to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the Russian side warned the French embassy and the French Foreign Ministry about possible retaliatory measures if the decision on the visas for Komsomolskaya Pravda journalists was not revised. She noted that the Russian side is ready to restore the French journalist's accreditation if the problem is resolved in Russia's favor. Zakharova explained the targeting of Quénelle by the fact that “the lot had fallen on him.”