Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, says it has started checking the legality of the BBC World News channel's Russian operations and the BBC's websites, following British media watchdog Ofcom's allegations that Russia's RT television channel had violated impartiality rules.
Roskomnadzor said in its statement on December 21 that the verification's goal was to establish whether the content of the BBC operation was consistent with Russian laws.
The statement comes a day after Ofcom said it was considering imposing a sanction on Russia's state-financed RT, saying it had broken impartiality rules in seven programs earlier this year, including coverage of the poisoning in Britain of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.
London has said that two Russian military intelligence agents were behind the poisoning, which the Kremlin has denied.