Russia said on Thursday that it had withdrawn accreditation from Le Monde's Moscow correspondent Benjamin Quénelle due to Paris's refusal to issue a visa to a Russian reporter, leaving the paper without a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what it called the "disguised expulsion" of its Moscow correspondent Benjamin Quenelle after his press accreditation was revoked.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,

The French Foreign Ministry urged Russian authorities to reconsider their 'unjustified and arbitrary' decision to revoke the accreditation of Le Monde's Moscow correspondent.