MOSCOW, September 25. /TASS/. Russia will provide an appropriate response to Russophobic measures by EU countries and is calling on the international community to condemn Brussels’ decision to impose sanctions on Ksenia Fedorova, former editor-in-chief of RT France, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"We call on all sensible members of the international community to condemn this act of intimidation against honest journalism and genuinely free-thinking media. We demand that relevant international bodies, including the leadership of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNESCO and the OSCE, properly assess the actions of France and the EU in terms of their compliance with their international obligations to ensure free access to information and freedom of expression. For our part, we state that an appropriate response will be given to the Russophobic moves of the countries in question and their aggressively minded blocs," she said.
On Thursday, the European Union added Fedorova, the former head of RT’s French bureau, to its sanctions list.
Zakharova described the EU’s decision as another act of political censorship and what she called an "anti-Russian frenzy."
"There is no doubt that behind this latest act of political censorship and anti-Russian frenzy on the part of Brussels, which is being whipped up with such vehemence in the West, there is Paris’ underlying desire to lend greater ‘legitimacy’ to its recent shameful decision to expel Fedorova from France on equally far-fetched pretexts," she said.
Zakharova noted that Fedorova had not worked for Russian media outlets for several years and had subsequently become a correspondent for a number of French publications, gaining recognition as a journalist and commentator in France.
"All her alleged ‘transgressions’ against the Elysee Palace, which authorized this smear campaign, stem from the fact that she refused to betray the ideals of the journalistic profession and ethics, as demanded by the current leadership of the Fifth Republic, and continued to honestly express her views on events and processes unfolding both within France and abroad," she said.
"In the simulacrum of democracy that France is becoming under its current leadership, this proved sufficient to set in motion the machinery of vindictive censorship. For its part, the EU, hopelessly mired in Russophobic policies, unhesitatingly endorsed this flawed logic," Zakharova said.
According to Zakharova, the alleged violation of Fedorova’s professional rights, which she described as "shameful" for the "progressive" West, once again exposes what she called the absurdity of the "collective West’s" claims to serve as a "gold standard" for the protection of democratic freedoms.
