Russia said on Thursday that it had withdrawn accreditation from Le Monde's Moscow correspondent Benjamin Quénelle due to Paris's refusal to issue a visa to a Russian reporter, leaving the paper without a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what it called the "disguised expulsion" of its Moscow correspondent Benjamin Quenelle after his press accreditation was revoked.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

Russia has revoked the accreditation of Benjamin Quénelle, Le Monde's correspondent in Moscow, due to France's refusal to issue a visa to a Russian journalist. This marks the absence of Le Monde's presence in Moscow since the 1950s,