Russia sees no problem with journalists from the German broadcaster Deutsche Welle accompanying German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on his February 15 trip to Moscow. stated official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova on the air of the Soloviev Live YouTube channel.
“Of course, what are the problems,” she answered the question of whether DW journalists could accompany Scholz during his visit to Moscow.
The German Cabinet denied that DW was not invited to accompany Scholz to Moscow
Earlier, on February 3, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a ban on DW broadcasting in Russia and a possible recognition of the media holding as a foreign agent. A day later, the Moscow branch of DW announced its closure, its journalists were asked to surrender their accreditations. The Russian authorities resorted to such measures after the ban on the broadcasting of the RT DE TV channel in Germany. German Minister for Culture and Media Claudia Roth called Moscow’s retaliatory sanctions groundless.
After that, the Tagesspiegel newspaper wrote that the press and information department of the German government forbade DW employees to accompany Scholz during a trip to Moscow. The editors admitted that the authorities did this to avoid conflict with Russia. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit denied these reports and said that journalists from the television company had been invited to accompany the chancellor.