Maria Zakharova
The decision of the Latvian authorities to ban the broadcasting of the Russia RTR TV channel for a year is a political demarche that grossly violates Riga's international obligations, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. This was reported on the website of the department.
“This, in particular, is unmistakably indicated by the absence of a similar reaction of the Latvian media regulator to no less sensitive content distributed by Western information sources,” she said.
According to Zakharova, the ban is aimed at eradicating Russian channels, media and the Russian language in Latvia. Thus, the country neglects the rights of the Russian-speaking population.
The decision to stop the broadcast was made by the National Council for Electronic Media (NEPLP) of Latvia. The occasion was the programs “60 minutes” and “Sunday evening with Vladimir Solovyov”, which, according to the regulator, incited hatred and contained calls for war.
One of the talk shows called Ukraine a terrorist state. Also in the programs there were calls to annex the post-Soviet republics to Russia, to destroy and rebuild Kiev and restore the USSR borders that existed on January 1, 1990.
Representatives of RTR Russia stated that these statements demonstrate a variety of opinions.
