Russia ready to resolve problem with RT, DW if Germany cooperates

Russia is ready to settle the situation around the closure of Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) media company’s Moscow office and the scandal around Russia’s RT DE channel in Germany if German authorities are willing to resolve the situation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Russia-24 TV channel on Thursday.

"If the German side desires to resolve this situation somehow - we are always ready," she said.

The diplomat noted that the employees of the Russian Foreign Ministry maintain contacts with DW journalists. "We explained everything to them. <...> We agreed that we are always in touch, that we will support them as we've always had, will provide logistics support, but while this situation is at a standstill, it will be like this," she explained, adding that Russia had offered numerous opportunities for dialogue at various levels in order to resolve this conflict.

On February 2, Germany's Commission for Licensing and Supervision of media institutions banned RT DE broadcasting in German language in the country because of the lack of license. According to the media regulator, the channel neither obtained nor requested the mentioned license.

On February 3, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that the German decision forces Moscow to take reciprocal measures against the Deutsche Welle office in Russia. Other measures include "the invalidation of accreditation of all employees" of the office. Russia also commenced creating a list of German representatives involved in the restriction of RT DE’s operation or other pressure on the Russian media operator. They will be barred from entering Russia. Moscow also ordered relevant institutions to consider recognizing Deutsche Welle as a media operator acting as a foreign agent. Moscow will also ban DW’s satellite and other broadcasting in Russia.