Kremlin’s RIA Novosti Closes Athens Bureau as Greece Tightens Restrictions

The Kremlin-aligned news agency RIA Novosti has announced the closure of its Athens bureau after the Greek Foreign Ministry refused to renew accreditation for its chief correspondent, Gennady Melnik, Russian media RIA Novosti reported on March 12.

“Last year, accreditation was extended with a delay, but this year, an official from the Department of International Public Relations informed us that there would be no positive response,” RIA Novosti stated and added that “She was unable to provide details of the decision or explain the reasons.”

The agency called the move a “gross violation of freedom of speech and democracy.”

RIA Novosti’s Athens bureau was established ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games, but in recent years, Greek authorities have restricted its operations, barring its reporters from covering official and international events.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Greek Foreign Ministry banned RIA Novosti’s correspondent from press conferences for over a year.

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In 2022, Greece also blocked access to media outlets under the “Russia Today” umbrella, including RIA Novosti, Sputnik, and RT.

By December 2023, the country had begun restricting the agency’s Telegram channel due to violations of local laws.

In June 2024, the European Union imposed sanctions on RIA Novosti, alongside Izvestia, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and the Russian-affiliated Voice of Europe news portal. The EU had previously banned the broadcasting and distribution of content from Sputnik, RT, Tsargrad, Spas, Russia Today, Oriental Review, New Eastern Outlook, and Katehon, as well as RT’s English, UK, German, French, and Spanish editions. Major Russian state-controlled television networks, including NTV, Rossiya 1, Channel One, and Ren-TV, also lost their licenses to operate in Europe.

Earlier, Russian media was claiming Kyiv is considering a series of terrorist attacks against Russian diplomatic missions in Europe to derail negotiations.

This was reported by various Russian news agencies on February 19, including RT, citing Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

“Ukraine will most likely attempt attacks in Germany, the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, as well as Slovakia and Hungary, according to the agency,” RT wrote on its Telegram channel.