Kremlin says French failure to accredit some Russian journalists for Paris Games is unacceptable

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Monday that a decision by France to refuse to accredit some Russian journalists for the Paris 2024 Olympics over security fears was unacceptable and accused the French authorities of undermining media freedom.

France’s caretaker interior minister said on Sunday that French security services had rejected more than 4,000 applications for Olympics accreditations, including over espionage and cyberattack concerns.

Gerald Darmanin, who said close to one hundred applications had been rejected over espionage fears, said some of those turned down were from Russia and Belarus, a staunch ally of Moscow’s.

When asked about the refusal to accredit some Russian journalists for the Olympics, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call:

“We consider such decisions unacceptable. We believe such decisions undermine the freedom of the media. And they certainly violate all of France’s commitments to the OSCE (The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) and to other organisations,” he said.

“And of course we would like to see a reaction to such decisions from relevant human rights organisations, from organisations focused on ensuring all the foundations and rules of media freedom.”

The West on Friday accused Russia of riding roughshod over media freedom after a court found U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich guilty of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony.

His employer, the Wall Street Journal, called the ruling “a disgraceful sham conviction.” saying he had merely been doing his job as a reporter accredited by the Foreign Ministry to work in Russia.

The Kremlin said the case and the trial arrangements were a matter for the court, but stated before the verdict and without publishing evidence that Gershkovich had been caught spying “red-handed”.

Relations between Russia and France have sharply deteriorated over the war in Ukraine.

France has supplied military equipment to Kyiv and President Emmanuel Macron had called President Vladimir Putin’s Russia an adversary, warning that Europe’s credibility would be reduced to zero if Moscow won the war.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov Editing by Andrew Osborn)