The ban will restrict people inside Russia from accessing the outlets’ online resources and broadcasting materials, the foreign ministry said, without providing details.
European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova called the ban “nonsense retaliation”.
“No, propaganda outlets funded by Russia to spread disinformation as part of Russia’s military doctrine are not the same as independent media,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Italy, whose state broadcaster RAI was included on the list, condemned the move as “unjustified”.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters the move showed the Russian government was “afraid of their own people hearing the truth about Russia’s actions”.
Russia said it would revise the restrictions if sanctions on Russian media were lifted.
“The Russian side had repeatedly warned at various levels that politically motivated harassment of domestic journalists and unjustified bans on Russian media in the EU area would not go unanswered,” its foreign ministry said.
CRACKDOWN
The Kremlin has long accused Brussels of targeting Russian journalists in the EU.
The EU argues the Kremlin has used its state-run outlets to spread disinformation and propaganda, including about Ukraine.
In 2022, the European Union blocked the Kremlin’s flagship 24-hour news channel RT, a move Moscow denounced as an attack on press freedom.