World Bulletin / News Desk

Russia is expelling a Moscow-based correspondent for a leading Polish newspaper in a move considered retaliotry after a Russian reporter was stripped of his right to reside in Poland amid suspicions of espionage reports The Associated Press.

On Friday, Russia's Foreign Ministry ordered Waclaw Radziwinowicz, a correspondent for the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, to leave Russia within 30 days. The ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Polish journalist was demanded to leave Russia "on the principle of reciprocity."

Poland's Foreign Ministry denounced the expulsion of Radziwinowicz as "unjustified" and "purely retaliatory" and said it would have "negative consequences" for relations between the two countries, which have already suffered over Russia's actions in Ukraine and other matters.

Roman Imielski, managing editor for the Gazeta Wyborcza, and the Polish Foreign Ministry said the move was the Russian response for the expulsion from Poland of Leonid Sviridov, a Russian reporter with the Kremlin-funded Rossiya Segodnya news service. He left Poland last Saturday.

Poland's Internal Security Agency said last year that Sviridov was a threat to Poland's security, though it never revealed what evidence it had against him. Polish media said Sviridov was suspected of spying for Russia, something Sviridov denied however authorities allowed him to remain in Poland for 14 more months while the administrative case against him ran its course.

Speaking with The Associated Press in a number of interviews, Sviridov depicted himself as the victim of anti-Russian feeling in Poland. He argued that if he were really a danger, Polish officials would have expelled him long before.

But Jacek Kozlowski, an official for the province of Mazovia, where Warsaw is based, told the AP he had seen the security agency's file on Sviridov, and while he could not reveal its contents, he insisted the case against the Russia was strong. 

Poland's Foreign Ministry insisted the expulsion of an experienced correspondent who has worked for many years in Russia was unfair.