MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. The RT DE television channel, which has been banned in Germany, has a valid broadcasting license, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

She recalled that a German foreign ministry spokesperson has said that the situations around RT DE and Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) media company are absolutely different as RT DE’s broadcasting was banned by a German independent mass media watchdog. Apart from that, according to the spokesperson, RT DE had no license whereas DW "was legally working with a license."

Zakharova noted in response that RT DE has a license issued in Serbia. "RT DE was licensed in Serbia. Under the European Convention on Transfrontier Television, RT DE can broadcast its programs in 33 European countries, including Germany," she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Apart from that, in her words, the TV channel is broadcast from Moscow, not from Berlin. "What has Germany got to do with that? Or does the German government think it has a license on the German language? I am not sure Austria and Switzerland are aware of such a turn of events," Zakharova noted.

On Wednesday, Germany’s media watchdog banned RT DE from broadcasting in the German language in Germany, citing the lack of a license as the reason.

In response, Moscow said the following day that it was shutting down a DW bureau in Russia as the first stage of its possible retaliatory measures. Other measures may include the withdrawal of credentials from all staff members at Deutsche Welle’s Russian bureau and the launch of a process aimed at identifying Germany’s government and public agencies involved in banning RT DE from broadcasting and putting other kinds of pressure on the Russian media outlet, entailing bans on entering Russia for those involved. Moscow may also look at declaring DW a foreign media outlet acting as a foreign agent. And ultimately, Russia may fully halt Deutsche Welle’s broadcasts in the country.