Russian Foreign Ministry promised to respond to the West's blocking of Russian media Telegram channels

Moscow reserves the right to respond symmetrically to the blocking of Telegram channels of Russian mass media in the West. This was reported by the Russian Foreign Ministry on December 29.

The ministry pointed to the ongoing systematic cleansing of the information space of the collective West of any undesirable sources of information. Repressions have also affected the Telegram channels of such broadcasters as RIA Novosti, Izvestia, RT, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Channel One, Rossiya 1 TV channel and NTV, due to alleged "violations of local legislation," the essence of which is not explained.

"These and similar attacks on our media will not go unanswered on the Russian side. We reserve the right for symmetrical retaliatory measures," the statement said.

The Foreign Ministry also demanded that specialized international structures give a proper assessment of these actions.

The blocking of Telegram-channel IZ.RU in a number of European countries became known on December 28. Its content was inaccessible in Spain, Germany and Sweden if a foreign SIM card was used. Commenting on this, Grigory Pashchenko, head of the CyberMoscow project, said that the move was related to Brussels' long-standing plans to isolate citizens from the most active Russian media outlets.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed to the lack of freedom of speech in Western countries back in late November. He noted that it used to be hard to believe that even respected publications in the West would publish a large number of fakes and customized materials.

Russian media in recent years have often been subjected to various bans in Western countries, including the EU. Thus, in late June, Brussels approved a ban on access to Izvestia, as well as RIA Novosti and Rossiyskaya Gazeta and Voice of Europe. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the measure a sweep of information space.