Russia’s Sputnik news agency halts operations in Britain
Russian news agency Sputnik will halt operations in Britain and move its English language service to Moscow and Washington, the media group that launched it in 2014 said on Friday, at a time when Russian-British relations have hit a low point.
Rossiya Segodnya said the move was part of a plan to reorganize its international presence in a more effective manner.
It said that Sputnik, which has offices in London and Edinburgh, would continue covering British news.
Sputnik’s website lists regional offices in Washington, Beijing, Paris, Berlin and Cairo.
Rossiya Segodnya and Sputnik did not immediately reply to requests for comment.
Relations between London and Moscow hit a post-Cold War low in 2018 when Britain blamed Russia for trying to kill former double agent Sergei Skripal with a Soviet-developed nerve agent on British soil. Russia denied it was to blame.
Britain also accused Russia last year of trying to interfere in its 2019 national election.
In 2019 Russia warned British media operating on its territory that they should be ready for consequences after Britain’s media regulator fined the state-financed RT television channel over its coverage of Skripal’s poisoning.