Russia on Wednesday said that it would expel two journalists from Germany's ARD national network in a like for like move after a Russian state broadcaster reported that its journalists had been ordered to leave Berlin, AFP reports.
Germany denied closing the Russian channel's bureau, however, and said it would reject ARD journalists being expelled "in the strongest possible terms".
Russian state-controlled media has faced broadcast bans and other restrictions since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive, accused by Western regulators of spreading disinformation. Moscow has responded with what it calls tit for tat measures.
ARD said that its two employees were told to hand over accreditations by December 16, saying that this "marks a new low point in relations with Russia" where "pressure on Western journalists... has continued to increase" since Russia began its Ukraine offensive in February 2022.
"We have to adopt retaliatory measures towards journalists of the Moscow office of ARD," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.
She named the two ARD journalists who have to leave Moscow and give up their accreditations as correspondent Frank Aischmann and cameraman Sven Feller.
This came after Russian state broadcaster Channel One reported that its correspondent and cameraman working in Berlin had been ordered to leave, with a newsreader saying authorities are "closing the German bureau".
Zakharova said Moscow's ban on journalists was "in response to the ban by German authorities on Channel One correspondents staying and working in Germany".
She called this "the latest unfriendly actions by Berlin towards Russian media".
Zakharova said Russia would only consider accrediting new ARD correspondents if Germany creates the right conditions for Russian journalists and allows Channel One's Berlin bureau to fully restart its work.
Germany denied as "false" the claim that it had shut Channel One's German bureau, however.
German foreign ministry spokesman Christian Wagner said that Germany would reject any attempt to expel its journalists from Russia "in the strongest possible terms".
He also denied the Russian reports that its TV bureau and journalists were being sanctioned.
The "federal government has not closed the office of this broadcaster," he said, stressing that Russian journalists "can report freely" in Germany, although he did not make clear whether the two Russian journalists had to leave.
