Moscow threatens tit-for-tat response to possible EU restrictions on Russian media

Moscow on Thursday threatened a tit-for-tat response if any restrictions were imposed on Russian media in the European Union (EU).

On Wednesday, the European Parliament passed a resolution suggesting the EU "counter disinformation campaigns and propaganda from countries such as Russia, and non-state actors like Daesh (also known as the Islamic State), al-Qaida and other violent jihadi terrorist groups."

The resolution warned that the Russian government has stepped up propaganda against the EU with its media organizations such as multilingual TV stations like Russia Today, "pseudo-news agencies and multimedia services" like Sputnik, as well as social media and Internet trolls.

"We hope this resolution won't be followed by practical decisions restricting Russian media activities," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a weekly briefing.

"If this document is applied and implemented ... countermeasures will follow," she added.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that by adopting this resolution, the EU demonstrated a "clear degradation (in the political sense) of the concept of democracy in Western society." Endi