MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police have opened a criminal investigation into an alleged assault on a freelance journalist by a person believed to be an employee of the British embassy, the Russian interior ministry said on Friday.
It said the journalist, a 23-year-old woman, had complained to police that she had suffered “physical and moral injury” in the alleged incident at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport while trying to interview British diplomats arriving there.
“While the journalist was performing her professional duties, an unknown man, presumably an employee of the British Embassy in the Russian Federation, who was meeting the delegation, pushed her, causing the girl to lose her balance,” the ministry said.
It said the British embassy had ignored a police request to identify the alleged offender and provide information about his diplomatic status. Russian authorities would work to ensure that the person concerned was punished, irrespective of their status and nationality, the ministry added.
Reuters has requested comment from Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
The announcement came a day after Britain announced it was expelling a Russian diplomat in retaliation for Moscow throwing out a British diplomat last November. Russia had accused the diplomat of spying, which London emphatically denied.
Relations between Britain and Russia have plunged to post-Cold War lows since the start of the Ukraine war. Britain has joined successive waves of sanctions against Russia and provided arms to Ukraine.
Russia has also become involved in an escalating row with France this week over the accreditation of journalists.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
