RT Editor-in-Chief Slams Latvian Intelligence Services Following Ban Of 7 RT Channels

The RT editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, slammed on Tuesday the Latvian intelligence services for their incompetence following the decision of the country's media watchdog to ban seven RT channels due to the understanding that they are owned by Dmitry Kiselev, who is under EU sanctions, although he has nothing to do with the broadcaster

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 30th June, 2020) The RT editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, slammed on Tuesday the Latvian intelligence services for their incompetence following the decision of the country's media watchdog to ban seven RT channels due to the understanding that they are owned by Dmitry Kiselev, who is under EU sanctions, although he has nothing to do with the broadcaster.

Earlier in the day, the Latvian National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP) said that it was banning seven RT channels, namely RT, RT HD, RT Arabic, RT Spanish, RT Documentary HD, RT Documentary and RT TV, saying that they were owned by Kiselev. However, Kiselev is the head of the Rossiya Segodnya international news agency, not RT, and these are two different legal entities. The information about their legal status is open to the public.

"Latvian intelligence believes that RT is headed by Dmitry Kiselev. American intelligence believes that a REN tv show, which I hosted in 2011, influenced the US [presidential] election [in 2016].

UK intelligence believes that Skripals [former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia] were poisoned by [Russian nationals Ruslan] Boshirov and [Alexander] Petrov. And this is good news. With such intelligence we are not afraid of the gray wolf," Simonyan wrote on her Telegram channel.

RT's press service also commented on Latvia's move, ironically "congratulating" the country's intelligence and the NEPLP for that after banning the RT channels they would be able to "protect" all its Arabic- and Spanish-speaking people from "the most influential Russian propagandist broadcaster."

Earlier in the day, Kiselev said that Latvia's explanation that the decision to ban the RT channels was based on its understanding that the broadcaster was owned by him showed that the authorities in Riga lacked credible information.