BBC correspondent to get extended visa, when Russian journalist gets UK visa

Moscow, August 14 (Sputnik) – BBC correspondent Sarah Rainsford will be granted a renewed Russian visa as soon as the UK issues a visa to a Russian correspondent, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday.
Zakharova commented on a statement in which the UK correspondent said that she was told she would never return to Russia.
“Firstly, she was not told that. A journalist, even British, having lived in the Russian-speaking environment for one third of her life, according to her own estimations, should understand the difference between ‘to never come back’ and ‘to have a journalist visa and accreditation recalled indefinitely.’ But we got used to such manipulations with information. Secondly, when the Russian correspondent is given a visa, Sarah will also be given a visa. That’s what we suggested, urging London to unlock the visa dead end for journalists,” the spokeswoman wrote on her Telegram-channel.
On Friday, BBC Director General Tim Davie condemned Russia for not extending Rainsford’s visa, which expires on August 31, and called it a “direct assault on media freedom.”
The measure was not an initiative but a response to the similar actions of the UK, Zakharova noted, citing a Russian correspondent whose visa was not extended in time by the British authorities without explaining the reasons back in 2019, so the journalist had to go back to Russia. That same year, London also reportedly denied visas to other Russian correspondents.