Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Estonia was actively "bullying" employees of Sputnik Estonia, who had not violated any professional standards.
"This is unacceptable", Zakharova said at a briefing. "What does it feel like to be one of those employees, who instead of preparing for the holidays ... must think about their future, without having broken any law, nor violated any professional ethics", the spokeswoman said.
On 18 December, Rossiya Segodnya said that employees of Sputnik Estonia had received letters from the Baltic country’s Police and Border Guard Board that warned they would face criminal prosecution unless they severed their ties with the Moscow-based parent news agency by 1 January. The Estonian authorities cited the 2014 EU sanctions as a pretext for possible legal action. Notably, Rossiya Segodnya insisted that it was not mentioned in any EU sanctions lists.