Russia shuts DW's local office, pulls staff accreditations

Russia's Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday that it was shutting down the Moscow office of German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle and withdrawing its staff's accreditations, in retaliation for a German move against Russian state RT TV.

A ministry statement said the decision was "the first stage" of measures in response to Germany ordering RT to cease broadcasting its German-language programmes in the country earlier this week.

Peter Limbourg, Deutsche Welle Director General said "Yes, we just received the message that we have to close our Moscow Bureau tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. I think we will take legal steps against this announcement and then we would have to see and wait what will happen from the Russian side."

The statement said Deutsche Welle will stop broadcasting in Russia, and staff accreditations to work will be withdrawn. It added that authorities will "initiate the procedure" of declaring Deutsche Welle a "foreign agent".