EU adds Russian media outlets to sanctions list despite Kremlin warning

MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) -European Union countries on Wednesday agreed in principle to add four Russian state media outlets to the EU's list of entities under sanctions, accusing them of propaganda, as the Kremlin vowed repercussions for Western journalists in Moscow.

"Four Kremlin-linked propaganda networks (have been) added to the sanctions list: Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestija and Rossiyskaya Gazeta", EU Commissioner for Values and Transparency Vera Jourova said on social media platform X.

The outlets include newspapers and online media.

Russia earlier warned the European Union against the move. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Kremlin would retaliate against Western correspondents in Moscow.

"If these measures are taken against the Russian media, Russian journalists, then, despite the fact that Western correspondents will not want to, they will also have to feel our retaliatory measures," Zakharova said.

"We will respond with lightning speed and extremely painfully for the Westerners," she said.

The EU did not immediately specify the measures applying to the media outlets but media sanctioned previously lost broadcasting rights in the EU.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov and Andrew Gray; Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Charlotte Van Campenhout; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Cynthia Osterman)