Arina Davidyan’s residence permit was not extended and she was ordered to leave Austria within two weeks.
Austria revoked the press accreditation of the head of the representative office of the Russian state news agency TASS, Arina Davidyan, and did not renew her residence permit. This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.
“On June 24, the head of the TASS bureau in Vienna, AA Davidyan, received a message about the non-renewal of his residence permit in Austria and an order to leave the country within two weeks Earlier, in April 30, the Austrian authorities, under a very serious reason, revoked the accreditation of the Russian journalist,” it said in the message.
On June 26, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned Caroline Schneider, chief correspondent of the Moscow bureau of the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, who was ordered to hand over her accreditation certificate and leave the territory of the Russian Federation in the near future.
The Austrian ORF considers the Russian decision to expel the head of the Moscow office “completely incomprehensible.” It was noted that, like the earlier expulsion of ORF correspondent Maria Knieps-Witting from Moscow, this step can only be interpreted “as an arbitrary action directed against independent journalism.”
In response to Moscow’s decision, the Austrian Foreign Ministry summoned the charge d’affaires of the Russian Embassy to the ministry on June 26.
As the spokesman of the Foreign Ministry told the APA news agency, the protest on this step will be expressed to the Russian diplomat in an unambiguous form.
“We condemn this irrational and unacceptable step. It represents a further arbitrary attack on the free press in Russia, without any justification,” he said.
A representative of the Austrian Foreign Ministry added that the removal of Schneider’s accreditation as ORF’s chief correspondent in Moscow was “unprecedented.”
It also learned that Russia will block the broadcast of programs and access to the websites of Austrian public broadcaster ORF and media group Österreich – along with 81 other European media, in response to a ban on the broadcasting of some Russian propaganda media in the EU.
The Austrian Foreign Ministry strongly condemned this decision of the Kremlin and announced the call of the Charge d’Affaires of the Russian Federation.
It was previously reported that Austria revoked the permanent accreditation of Ivan Popov, a correspondent for the Russian news agency TASS.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.