MOSCOW – Russia announced on Wednesday that the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Moscow headquarters would be closed in retaliation for Ottawa’s decision to ban Russian official media outlet RT.

“Responsible journalism, communicating what’s genuinely going on with citizens, is a deep challenge to Vladimir Putin,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.

RT and RT France were officially banned from Canada’s airwaves in March, citing programming that was “not consistent with Canadian broadcasting standards.”

Since Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, most Western countries have blocked RT and state-controlled outlet Sputnik, accusing them of spreading propaganda.

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“A decision was reached to take retaliatory steps in response to Canada’s actions, in this case the closure of the CBC’s Moscow offices,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

According to Zakharova, Canada’s prohibition on RT was “Russophobic,” and the CBC had devolved into “propaganda babble.”

“Any different viewpoint is branded as Kremlin propaganda,” she stated.

Trudeau added that the move was “wrong” and that journalists must be “free from censorship, intimidation, and meddling” in a Twitter message.

Brodie Fenlon, editor-in-chief of CBC News, expressed his disappointment, saying that it “appears to be another attempt by Russia to suppress a free and independent press within its boundaries.”

“CBC journalism is fully independent of the Canadian government,” Fenlon said in a statement, “and we are dismayed to see the Russian government combine the two.”

The CRTC, an independent regulatory organisation, reached the decision to ban RT after public consultations, according to Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez.

“They just kicked out a journalist in Russia,” he added, adding that it appeared to be “Putin’s frantic attempt to hide what is happening on the ground” in Ukraine and Russia.