Vyshinsky, Butina Stage Lone Pickets Outside Latvian Embassy To Protest Media Crackdown

Vyshinsky, Butina Stage Lone Pickets Outside Latvian Embassy to Protest Media Crackdown

The Rossiya Segodnya news agency's executive director, Kirill Vyshinsky, and Russian Civic Chamber member Maria Butina, who served 18 months in US prison, staged single-person pickets outside the Latvian embassy in Moscow on Tuesday to protest crackdown on Russian media in Baltic countries, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2021) The Rossiya Segodnya news agency's executive director, Kirill Vyshinsky, and Russian Civic Chamber member Maria Butina, who served 18 months in US prison, staged single-person pickets outside the Latvian embassy in Moscow on Tuesday to protest crackdown on Russian media in Baltic countries, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene.

The pickets come as the Republic of Latvia marks centenary of its international recognition. In her symbolically handcuffed hands, Butina carried a banner that read: "a high-security zone of freedom of speech."

"Unfortunately, I had to put handcuffs on again. It is the last thing I would want to do, but I cannot do it other way. This is an act of solidarity with our compatriots and journalists in Latvia who are now being persecuted for an alternative point of view, for cooperation with Russian media," she told reporters.

The rights activist described Latvia's policy as a crackdown on freedom of speech and universal human values.

"In Latvia, we see gross rights violations not only against our fellow journalists, but also our compatriots ... They violate a journalist's main prerogative � an ability to choose a news outlet that corresponds to their internal convictions ... The fact that things like European sanctions are being manipulated in Latvia has been recorded not only by us, not only by the Russian Foreign Ministry, but also by an organization that can hardly be suspected of being fond of our country, namely Reporters Without Borders," Vyshinsky said.

In December, several Latvian Russian-speaking journalists, including those who wrote articles for Baltnews and Sputnik Latvia outlets, have been accused of violating EU sanctions. Their apartments were searched and they were put under own recognizance not to leave the country. Sputnik Latvia and Baltnews are part of the Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, whose director general, Dmitry Kiselev, is on the EU sanctions list.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says that the EU sanctions are individual and concern only Kiselev and thus could not apply to everyone, who cooperates with the media group. According to Moscow, Latvia uses EU sanctions as an excuse to justify its "punitive campaign" against Russian media.