VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th December, 2020) The political context is quite obvious in the pressure of the Latvian authorities on Sputnik news agency, Russia's deputy permanent representative at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Maxim Buyakevich, told Sputnik.
The Russian Permanent Mission on Friday raised the issue of what is happening around Sputnik in Latvia at the OSCE Permanent Council.
"Where the political overtones of pressure are quite obvious, there, in fact, the sovereign rights of an OSCE member state should, by and large, end, since they directly conflict with the political obligations of such a country to ensure freedom of expression. This freedom is unconditional and, of course, cannot be justified by the application of some sanctions, especially in relation to a single individual," Buyakevich said.
Riga's position on the sovereign right to oppress Sputnik under the pretext of personal EU sanctions is absolutely untenable, Buyakevich said.
"The position of Latvia is rather peculiar. It is assumed that the restrictions that have now been applied to well-known journalists in Latvia are the sovereign right of the Republic of Latvia, since, they say, they fit into the framework of the implementation of EU directives on personal sanctions against Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency head Dmitry Kiselev," Buyakevich explained.
"The position is absolutely untenable, since the broad interpretation of such sanctions by the Latvian authorities, regardless of their nature in general, can in no way include arbitrary measures of pressure on those journalists who are not even members of the Rossiya Segodnya media holding � there were quite a large number of stringers and people who work on a commercial basis with a wide range of media, not only Russian or Russian-speaking, but also with many others," the Russian diplomat emphasized.
Russia is not surprised by the lack of reaction from the European Union to the Sputnik case in Latvia, they are always silent when measures against journalists are applied on its territory, Buyakevich said.
"Our western partners preferred to keep silent, which is not surprising: the topic is inconvenient, they did not want to get involved in a difficult polemic for them," he said.
"We did not expect any reaction from their side, especially from Brussels, which likes so much to teach other states human rights, primarily in the media, but is traditionally silent in response to some malicious measures against journalists on its own territory. It happened this time too," the deputy envoy said.
