Politico's European office says its reporter in Moscow, Eva Hartog, has left the country after being told her visa would not be extended.
Hartog, a Dutch national, has been reporting from Russia for the past ten years, according to Politico. The company said she was told her visa had not been extended and she had six days to leave the country.
"We are extremely disappointed by these actions, but they do not diminish Politico's unwavering commitment to reporting on the Russian government and its war in Ukraine," the newspaper said, saying it hoped Eva and Politico would return to Moscow soon.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last year, foreign journalists have been required to reapply for visas and media accreditation every three months, as opposed to once a year before the war began.
During a press conference in February of this year, the spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marija Zakharova, announced the end of the "regime of maximum favorable treatment" towards foreign journalists.
"It's all over now. Foreign correspondents will live and search for their documents in a new way," she added.
Since President Vladimir Putin launched an all-out war against Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities have gradually sidelined remaining critics at home.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny was jailed and sentenced to a maximum-security prison on extremism charges, while virtually all independent Russian journalists have fled the country due to new censorship laws that criminalize critical reporting on the war.
A Dutch citizen with Russian roots, Hartog, 35, moved to Moscow in 2013. She first worked as a web editor at the Moscow Times, and later took on the role of editor-in-chief. Since 2019, he has been writing for the Dutch newspaper magazine De Groene Amsterdammer, and more recently as a correspondent for POLITICO Europe from Russia.
"Fortunately, Eva is safe and was able to leave Russia — however, the Wall Street Journal's Evan Gershkovich remains unjustly imprisoned for fair and accurate journalism and should be released immediately," adds Politico.
The Kremlin has selectively targeted foreign journalists and international media in recent years. In 2021, the BBC's Russia correspondent Sarah Rainsford was expelled after being declared a threat to national security. Russia said at the time that the move was in retaliation for the UK's refusal to grant visas to Russian journalists.
Just months later, Russia then expelled Tom Vennink, the Russian correspondent of the Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant, for "administrative violations." Vennink was given three days to leave the country and is banned from entering Russia until January 2025.
Dozens of foreign journalists and organizations left Russia in the days and weeks after Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, but many have returned.
In March of this year, Russia arrested Evan Gershkovich, an American reporter for The Wall Street Journal, on espionage charges — denied by Gershkovich and his employer — making him the first foreign journalist to be arrested on espionage charges since the Cold War. Geršković, who faces up to 20 years in prison, remains in custody in Russia.
His arrest sent shockwaves through the community of American and foreign journalists still in Russia, with many considering their future in the country.
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