Reuters – The speaker of Russia’s parliament scolded the European Union on Saturday for banning the distribution of four Russian media outlets and said it showed how the West refused to accept any alternative point of view and was destroying freedom of speech.
The European Union said on Friday it was suspending the distribution of Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti news agency and newspapers Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta on the grounds that they “have been essential and instrumental in bringing forward and supporting Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine”.
Russia has said that the move will result in a harsh response against Western media in Moscow, but has yet to announce which media organisations it will affect.
“The EU leadership can only talk about freedom of speech, but in fact it does not tolerate it,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, who is a close ally of President Vladimir Putin and a member of Russia’s Security Council.
