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Moscow demands that US stops persecuting Russian journalists — Foreign Ministry

According to Maria Zakharova, American authorities try to complicate operation of Russian journalists in the US by intimidating them and forcing them to leave the country

MOSCOW, May 13. /TASS/. Moscow urges Washington to stop exerting pressure on representatives of Russian media working in the US, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in her commentary Friday.

"We demand to immediately stop persecuting Russian journalists and to provide them with normal working conditions in accordance with the standards of the freedom of speech, which Washington loves to talk about in such volumes and so hypocritically," she pointed out.

According to the diplomat, American authorities try to complicate operation of Russian journalists in the US by intimidating them and forcing them to leave the country.

"More and more new restrictions are being imposed against Russian journalists, officially accredited in the US, aimed either to complicate their professional operation or to intimidate them and force them to leave," she said.

In particular, the spokeswoman noted, FBI agents sought to pressure the head of one Russian media’s office in Washington.

"Another example of such unprecedented pressure is the two ‘approaches’ of FBI agents to the head of one Russian media office in Washington. Their goal is obvious - to push the journalist off balance and to try to involve him into a compromising ‘cooperation’," she said, adding that these attempts were unsuccessful.

"It didn’t work. However, the very situation, when ‘undesired’ reporters, who cover the events not in a way that the Washington propaganda would like, are being pressured by intelligence agencies, is typical for the Russophobic campaign, deployed in the US in the spirit of the ‘witch hunt’," Zakharova concluded.

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