Top Latvian Diplomat Denies Misinterpreting EU Sanctions Amid Crackdown on Russian Media

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th December, 2020) Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics asserted on Thursday that the Baltic nation acted in line with EU guidelines when it charged journalists working for Russian media with violating sanctions.

The Latvian counter-intelligence security service has confirmed that legal proceedings are underway against seven Russian-speaking journalists working for Rossiya Segodnya's outlets over their association with the news agency's director general, Dmitry Kiselev, who is on the EU sanctions list.

"Actions of law enforcement agencies against certain individuals... do not undermine freedom of expression or anything else. They are in line with the application of EU sanctions. Latvia neither expanded nor interpreted these sanctions," Rinkevics was cited as saying by BB.lv news website.

The European Union froze Kiselev's assets and barred his entry over the 2014 conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The sanctions do not cover Rossiya Segodnya or its outlets in Latvia, Baltnews and Sputnik Latvia.

Rinkevics argued that Latvia "scrupulously applies" EU sanctions in a way determined by its investigators, prosecutors and courts. He said Riga had consulted with the European Commission to clarify "parameters" for using the EU's punitive measures.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called Latvia's aggressive actions against the Russian-speaking journalists a punitive action and a blatant example of erosion of democratic norms of a society: freedom of media and expression. The ministry stressed that the EU sanctions were individual and concerned only Kiselev and thus could not apply to everyone, who cooperated with the media holding.

Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya and the RT broadcaster, expressed hope that Russia would respond to the charges initiated against Russian-speaking journalists.