MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. TASS Director General Andrey Kondrashov criticized Friday’s move by the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) to expel the state-owned news agency as a manifestation of a degrading Europe.

The news agency’s membership has been suspended since March 2022. Earlier on Friday, the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) expelled TASS without any notification or explanation, following a secret ballot by its General Assembly.

"Degradation across a number of European institutions is ongoing. It’s noteworthy that the board of the European Alliance of News Agencies recently sent a letter to TASS, threatening to expel it, but actually failed to provide a single example of disinformation on the part of our agency," Kondrashov argued.

Votes that required the approval of three-fourths of those voting to expel the EANA member in 2022 and 2024 failed for the same reason, he continued. "And at the initiative of a Ukrainian agency only 20 out of the 33 European [member] countries gathered to vote - reliable Russophobes, I assume, who enabled the EANA to expel TASS, albeit not unanimously," Kondrashov noted.

Twenty news agencies held a secret vote at an EANA meeting in Larnaca, of them 19 supported the measure proposed by Ukrainian representatives.

"Congratulations to our former colleagues - scheming is a companion to cowardice. We are adamant that a time will come soon when they will ask TASS to return. But we will think twice before taking the same path as those countries and their news agencies where Russophobia has substituted journalism," the TASS director general concluded.