OREANDA-NEWS. Russia calls on international structures to evaluate the actions of the National Council on Electronic Mass Media of Latvia, which decided to stop the broadcast of nine Russian-language television channels in the republic. This was announced on Thursday at a briefing by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.

“Such discriminatory steps by the Latvian authorities against Russian media resources, overt attempts to clean up the information space from alternative, maybe objectionable, points of view are a gross violation of international law in terms of freedom of expression and equal access to information”, she said. “We urge relevant international organizations and non-governmental organizations".

The channels that were banned included Time: Far and Near, Beaver, Cinema House, Premium Cinema House, Music of the First, Oh!, Let's Go, Telecafe and Petersburg - Fifth channel". The Latvian side explained the decision to stop their broadcast by the fact that their final beneficiary is Yuri Kovalchuk, for whom EU sanctions apply.