MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has cautioned Western countries that retaliatory expulsions of foreign media representatives will continue if Russian journalists are further discriminated.

The diplomat drew attention to the "flurry of angry stories" in the Western media following Russia’s tit-for-tat response to the unmotivated expulsion of Russian TASS correspondent Ivan Popov from Austria. Zakharova reiterated that this was the reason for withdrawing accreditation of Maria Knips-Witting, a journalist from the Moscow bureau of the Austrian ORF broadcaster. However, "no one in the editorial offices of these ‘mouthpieces of the free world’ was confused by the fact that their own stories mentioned the purely retaliatory nature of this measure."

Belligerent remarks in Western media whenever Russia is mentioned or the situation of their personnel, are "in sharp contrast to what these same correspondents say off-the-record, talking about the complete comfort of staying in our country," the diplomat wrote on her Telegram channel. "I will take this opportunity to once again warn the West: if you touch our journalists, other foreign correspondents will go home as well," the diplomat wrote.