"We raise this question very actively in our contacts with the head of divisions within the Council of Europe and with the human rights commissioner. So far the reactions have been weak and for us, inadequate", Ivan Soltanovsky said.
He put the Council’s reaction down to double standards and promised to seek "concrete practical measures" to end discrimination against journalists working for Russian media in the Baltic nation.
Several journalists working for Sputnik Latvia were accused in December of violating EU sanctions. Their apartments were searched and they were barred from leaving the country. Sputnik Latvia is 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 were targeted at an individual and concern only Kiselev and thus could not apply to anyone else who cooperates with the media group. According to Moscow, Latvia uses EU sanctions as an excuse to justify its "punitive campaign" against Russian media.
