"The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that coverage of various events in Belarus by RTR correspondents cannot be construed as serious grounds for such actions," Alexander Yakovenko says in his comment.
The statement also says that "the Russian Foreign Ministry is carefully monitoring the information concerning the Belarussian authorities' intention to close down the RTR news bureau in Minsk."
"This can have an adverse impact on Russian citizens' ability to obtain information from that country," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman points out.
"We hope that the RTR news bureau in Belarus will be able to continue work in its usual format," the statement says.
On Friday evening, the Belarussian TV quoted the Belarussian Foreign Ministry as saying that a decision had been made to terminate operation of the RTR news bureau in Minsk.
According to the above report, the decision resulted from the RTR correspondent Dmitry Petrov's coverage of the demonstration staged by the Belarussian opposition on July 21.
RIA Novosti has not been able so far to obtain official confirmation of the report from the Belarussian Foreign Ministry.
Earlier, Belarussian Foreign Minister Vladimir Naumov said that Dmitry Petrov "grossly distorted the actual state of things when he had reported that some 2,000 to 5,000 people had taken part in the opposition-led rally in Minsk."
"According to our information, only 170-180 people attended the rally," Naumov said.
