Russia can renew BBC journalist visa if UK responds in kind

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian Foreign Ministry says it could renew a visa for a BBC journalist to let her resume work in Moscow if British authorities give a visa to a Russian journalist. Moscow has refused to renew a visa for BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford in an effective expulsion amid simmering tensions with Britain — a move that the British government and the BBC condemned Friday as an assault on media freedom. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Saturday rejected what she described as British “unfounded accusations and Russophobic cliches.” She insisted that the Russian action was a retaliation to U.K.’s refusal to extend a visa to a Russian news agency correspondent or anyone who could replace him.