VIENNA, August 25. /TASS/. Russia will respond to those countries that discriminate against Russian media outlets and citizens in order to achieve a certain balance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg on Wednesday.
"We have never been the first to start such actions. Yet if such discriminatory measures are applied to our media outlets, to our citizens, if they are labeled as foreign agents and are accordingly persecuted, then, of course, we will respond. Yet not in order to take revenge but to bring our relations to parity in the corresponding sphere," the Russian top diplomat said.
In response to a question asked by an Austrian reporter on whether Russia will recognize the participants of the Sochi Dialogue public forum established by Russian and Austrian presidents in 2019 as foreign agents, the Russian foreign minister pointed out that the journalist possessed "insufficient knowledge of the subject" and lacked "complete information."
"A foreign agent is a legal entity or a private individual that receives funding from abroad and is involved in a political activity. Those involved in humanitarian and cultural contacts are not subject to the law on foreign agents," the Russian top diplomat explained.