The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moscow:
An investigative journalist for the BBC Russian service in Moscow said in a video released on Monday that he feels forced to leave Russia to live in exile in the UK due to what he calls surveillance. unprecedented closeness.
Russian authorities designated Andrei Zakharov as a “foreign spy” in October, a decision the British broadcaster said at the time strongly rejected and would try to debunk.
The designation is the latest twist in a crackdown on media that authorities in Moscow consider hostile and foreign-backed.
Individual, BBC journalist Sarah Rainsford left Russia in August after Moscow refused to extend her permission to work in what it said was a tit-for-tat battle with Britain over its treatment of foreign media.
The designation of a foreign agent carries Cold War-era connotations and requires those labeled as such to clearly indicate in all their content that they are “foreign agents”, which has may affect advertising revenue.
In a video posted from London on YouTube, Zakharov said he felt forced to leave Russia after noticing what he called “unprecedented surveillance” of his activities in Moscow.
He did not say who was spying on him and added that he was not sure if he was being tracked because of his appointment of a foreign agent or because of an investigation he recently made into allegations Russian hackers.
The Russian Interior Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the video.
The Kremlin has repeatedly said that journalists and media agencies designated as foreign agents can continue their work in Russia.
The BBC did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Zakharov, who has investigated topics ranging from President Vladimir Putin’s personal history to Russian disinformation factories.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from an aggregated feed.)
