A list of BBC reporters and other personnel working in Russia has been published online, after Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper published a “name and shame” hit piece about Sputnik agency employees in the UK.

The list featuring 44 names of BBC employees and their pictures first appeared on a public group page on the Russian social network Vkontakte – a sort of Russian version of Facebook – and in one of the posts on Pikabu, which is similar to Reddit.

It was apparently then published by a news website Segodnia.ru. The list includes correspondents, TV reporters, producers and camera operators, with pictures seemingly taken from their social media profiles or from other open sources.

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This comes after the Sunday Times published a hit peace on the Edinburgh bureau of the Russian-funded news agency Sputnik, with names and pictures of its employees. The list included eight people - reporters, management and a person in charge of the IT department.

The article called the agency a “Kremlin stooge” in its headline, cited a Scottish MP who accused Sputnik of seeking to “destabilize” the UK, and called on the British authorities to seize the journalists’ assets.

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The social media post accompanying the list of BBC journalists condemned the actions of the Times, comparing them to those of an infamous Ukrainian website Mirotvorets (Peacekeeper) that tracks the alleged “enemies” of Ukraine – meaning people who do not support Kiev’s current policies or share Moscow’s position on something.

The anonymous authors also accused the Times of exerting “psychological pressure” on the Russian journalists working in the UK and seeking to “discredit” their work.

The Sunday Times article was widely criticized in Russia.

“Happy upcoming 1933, my British friends,” RT’s Editor-in-Chief, Margarita Simonyan said in response to the article, referring to the year when Hitler established an absolute dictatorship in Germany.

British journalist Neil Clark believes that the Times’ publication about Sputnik is part of the newspaper’s “appalling” war on Russian media.

“It’s tantamount to almost incitement, it might put those people’s lives in danger,” he told RT.

The Guardian, which was apparently the first western outlet to notice the list of the BBC reporters published in Russia, was quick to point the finger of blame at the Kremlin.

BBC reporters' information “appears to have come from official documentation” the Guardian said, adding that the “list only includes BBC employees accredited with the Russian government.”

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The BBC itself has expressed its frustration over the doxxing of their employees in Russia.

“The BBC has strict editorial guidelines and has not published the details of journalists from other media organisations as there was no editorial reason or justification to do so. We are disappointed at the groundless publication of our Moscow team’s details,” the broadcaster replied to RT.

Neither the BBC nor the Guardian have condemned the Sunday Times piece publishing the identities of Sputnik contributors.

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