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Envoy warns of Russia’s reaction to restrictions against RT DE in Germany

According to Sergey Nechayev, all representatives of German media outlets are comfortable on the Russian media market

BERLIN, January 2. /TASS/. Moscow will react to the restrictions that the RT DE TV channel has to face in Germany, Russian Ambassador to Berlin Sergey Nechayev said in an interview with the DPA news agency.

"Russia will definitely show a reaction," he pointed out, adding that Moscow had various options for that because "a lot of German journalists work in Russia."

According to the envoy, all representatives of German media outlets are comfortable on the Russian media market. "In fact, we don’t want a conflict. We only want our TV channel to have equal rights in Germany and be able to work in peace," Nechayev emphasized.

RT said earlier that Germany’s media regulator MABB had forced the European satellite operator Eutelsat 9B to remove a new Moscow-based German-language TV channel, RT DE, from its platform. RT pointed out that it viewed the German watchdog’s action as unlawful and was confident that its decision was subject to judicial review. MABB insists that since a large number of the German service employees work from Berlin, German laws should apply to the content that is provided to its German audience. On December 17, news came that the German watchdog had launched an investigation against RT on suspicion of violating Germany’s broadcasting rules. Russia’s telecom watchdog demanded on December 17 that Google lift restrictions on RT Deutsch.