Russia said on Thursday that it had withdrawn accreditation from Le Monde's Moscow correspondent Benjamin Quénelle due to Paris's refusal to issue a visa to a Russian reporter, leaving the paper without a presence in Moscow for the first time since the 1950s.

French newspaper Le Monde on Wednesday denounced what it called the "disguised expulsion" of its Moscow correspondent Benjamin Quenelle after his press accreditation was revoked. After four months of suspension,

Britain on Thursday summoned the Russian ambassador to London for a meeting with a senior British official to revoke the accreditation of a Russian diplomat. "This is in response to Russia's unprovoked and baseless decision to strip the accreditation of a British diplomat in Moscow in November,

Britain's government revoked the accreditation of a Russian diplomat on Thursday in a tit-for-tat move after Moscow expelled a British official last year on spying allegations. Officials summoned Russian Ambassador Andrey Kelin to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office to inform him of the decision.