Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 27, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleGermany denies Russia's claims of journalist harassment, emphasizing its commitment to press freedom. Russia plans retaliatory measures.
BERLIN (Reuters) -A German foreign ministry official on Friday rejected "unfounded accusations" made by Russia's foreign ministry that Berlin had persecuted Russian journalists working in the country.
"In contrast to Russia's increasingly harsh repression of journalists, Germany upholds the principles of the rule of law and freedom of the press," the official said in a statement.
Russia summoned the German ambassador earlier on Friday to inform him of retaliatory measures in response to what it sees as the harassment of Russian journalists based in Germany, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
In a statement, the Russian ministry said the German ambassador, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, was informed that "Berlin should not continue the practice of systematic harassment of Russian journalists in Germany."
Such "open unfriendly actions by the German authorities will inevitably be met with a response from the Russian side," the ministry said.
Lambsdorff was quoted by the Izvestia outlet as saying the meeting, which lasted over two hours, was "interesting."
"We discussed the working conditions of our correspondents. We will continue this dialogue."
(Reporting by Andreas Rinke, writing by Miranda Murray and Lucy Papachristou, editing by Thomas Seythal, William Maclean)
Russia's foreign ministry accused Germany of persecuting Russian journalists working in the country.
A German foreign ministry official rejected the accusations as 'unfounded' and emphasized Germany's commitment to the rule of law and freedom of the press.
The Russian ministry warned that Germany's actions would lead to retaliatory measures from the Russian side.
The German ambassador, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, was involved in the discussions regarding the working conditions of Russian correspondents.
The meeting lasted over two hours, and both sides agreed to continue the dialogue about the working conditions of journalists.
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