The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, on Friday called on the Foreign Ministry and other executive bodies to impose sanctions on authorities in the Baltic states over their moves against Russian media outlets
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th July, 2020) The upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, on Friday called on the Foreign Ministry and other executive bodies to impose sanctions on authorities in the Baltic states over their moves against Russian media outlets.
"The Interim Commission of the Council of the Federation calls on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and other Russian executive bodies, within their competence, to explore the possibility of introducing reciprocal political and other measures against the authorities of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia that are grossly violating the principles of freedom of speech and dissemination of information, as well as their obligations to international organizations," the commission said in a statement on Friday in connection with decisions by Lithuania and Latvia to ban broadcasting of Russian media juggernaut RT.
The statement included sanctions against Estonia for having banned Sputnik from working in the country earlier.
The statement went on to brand the actions of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia as censorship, saying that they violate the fundamental principles of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe.
The head of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation, Andrey Klishas, told Sputnik that his committee backs this position.
"Such actions of foreign states should not remain unanswered. It is necessary to impose sanctions on the part of Russia against officials who violate the rights of the Russian media," he said.
Earlier in the week, the Lithuanian Radio and Television Commission (LRTK) banned the broadcasting of five RT channels namely RT, RT HD, RT Spanish, RT Documentary HD and RT Documentary. It followed a similar decision made by neighboring Latvia last week, which explained its action by saying that the channels were owned by Rossiya Segodnya Director-General Dmitry Kiselev, who is under EU sanctions. Notably, Rossiya Segodnya and RT are two different legal entities. RT is not chaired by Kiselev, and its editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, is not under any EU sanctions.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu on Monday said that his government was mulling over banning RT channels as well.
