The SZhR called the attitude of Western countries towards Russian journalists terrible

Western countries have a terrible attitude towards journalists from Russia. Vladimir Solovyov, chairman of the Russian Union of Journalists, told Izvestia on February 7.

He expressed regret over France's refusal to issue visas to representatives of Russian media - Izvestia journalist Nikolai Ivanov and cameraman Georgy Bekauri.

"The authorities of Western countries unfriendly to us behave terribly towards Russian media, Russian journalists. And now, when we are in the year of the 80th anniversary of the Victory, they refuse even to let the group make a material about what happened many, many years ago" - said the chairman of the SZhR.

At the same time, Solovyov expressed hope that the situation will change after USAID ceases to exist.

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Ivanov and Bekauri were planning to go to France to film a report about the French resistance for the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War. According to Izvestia's correspondent, the film crew was refused a visa at the embassy with the wording that "one or more EU states consider them a threat to public order or internal security."

Commenting on this, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said it was a statement that Paris was harassing Russian press workers.

Earlier, on February 6, it was specified that the French Embassy in Russia twice refused to grant a visa to work in Paris to Alexander Kudela, an international journalist of the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. Zakharova called on the French authorities to reconsider the decision not to grant Kudela a visa.

She also responded to the French Foreign Ministry's statement calling on it to reconsider the decision to revoke the accreditation of Le Monde's permanent correspondent in Moscow, Benjamin Quenel, calling the withdrawal of the document a forced measure. According to her, the retaliatory measures against Kenel will be lifted as soon as the French side changes the decision on the visa status of the Russian media representative.