Sergey Feoktistov was earlier ordered to leave Berlin as part of sanctions imposed on Moscow’s media
Russia has condemned the treatment of Sergey Feoktistov, head of the bureau for the media company Rossiya Segodnya in Germany, who said that Berlin police seized the passports of his wife and daughter.
The EU imposed sanctions on Rossiya Segodnya in 2023, accusing the Russian state-owned agency of spreading “disinformation” about the Ukraine conflict.
Earlier this month, German authorities declined to renew Feoktistov’s residency permit and gave him until August 19 to leave the country or face deportation. According to the journalist, he flew to Berlin on Friday to help his family move but was barred from entering the country.
“Police came to the apartment where I used to live with my family — and where my wife and seven-year-old daughter still live — and confiscated their passports. They claimed that my wife and daughter might go into hiding to evade the order to leave Germany by August 19,” Feoktistov told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Germany of “targeting journalists and media outlets” in an effort to “eradicate alternative points of view.” Rossiya Segodnya chief Dmitry Kiselyov said Germany was preparing its public for “a war with Russia.”
Since 2022, the EU has banned multiple Russian media organizations, including RT and Sputnik, and blacklisted their staffers. Moscow responded with retaliatory sanctions on several Western journalists and blocked access to certain media outlets, including Germany’s state broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
