Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday he did not support banning foreign media outlets including Germany’s Deutsche Welle from working in Russia, something that had been proposed by parliament, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia‘s parliament accused Deutsche Welle in September of breaking election legislation and asked the foreign ministry to consider revoking the German broadcaster’s right to work in the country.
Vasily Piskarev, a senior lawmaker said a parliamentary investigation had found evidence that Germany’s publicly funded international broadcaster had urged Russians to attend an unauthorized protest this summer, according to the lower parliamentary house’s web site.
Piskarev said the parliamentary investigation would also look into whether coverage by Britain’s BBC and the U.S.-funded Radio Liberty had breached Russian election law.
Moscow has previously used laws regulating media ownership to threaten foreign outlets with expulsion in tit-for-tat responses to measures taken by foreign governments against its own media, including broadcaster RT.