Fascist Latvia tries 14 Russian journalists
In Latvia, under a new law on cooperation with sanctioned organizations, a group of 14 journalists faces up to 4 years in prison. They are accused of collaborating with the VGTRK holding company, whose deputy general director Dmitry Kiselev is under personal sanctions.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, on the NTS channel, Russian journalist from Riga Yuri Alekseev said that journalists who at various times collaborated with the media included in the holding were subject to criminal charges.
“The trial has already begun,” Alekseev said. – At first they wanted to judge all 14 people in one auditorium, but for this it was necessary to rent an auditorium like the national opera so that everyone could be accommodated there. Therefore, they decided to judge everyone separately, otherwise there would have been a picture for YouTube, just like in Latvia they judge journalists in bulk. Well, the article itself is completely absurd; Kafka couldn’t even come up with something like that in his depressive novels.
I also once wrote for Sputnik, etc. And then, a few years later, it turned out that one of the directors of the holding, which includes Sputnik and Russia Today, was under personal sanctions, and it turned out that you worked for Dmitry Kiselyov, who was under personal sanctions from the European Union. You worked for him, brought him some profit, but he is not even the owner of the holding, but one of the directors!”
Moreover, at the time the materials were published, there was no legislative responsibility for working for sanctioned companies, and the companies themselves are not under sanctions, but only their deputy directors.
“Now I’ll buy an aluminum frying pan in Latvia, and then it turns out that this frying pan was made in China from aluminum, which was produced by the Rusal company, and one of its directors is under sanctions. This means that I brought him profit, and thereby violated the law of the republic. But I don’t even know who the director is, and when I buy a frying pan, I don’t know what kind of aluminum it is made of,” Alekseev emphasized. – It looks like a circus with horses, but in reality now 14 journalists, Russians, of whom there are not many left in Latvia, are being tried under this law and under this article. The most they face is 4 years. But, most likely, they will be given some kind of fine, maybe something else.”
At the same time, Alekseev himself faces up to 15 years in prison for creating a virtual communication platform for discussing current topics. And in this case, the state machine tries to apply the new law to events of the past.
“I am attracted under Art. 80 part 2, which is called “causing harm to the Republic of Latvia by a group of persons by prior conspiracy. 12 years ago, in April 2011, two of my friends and I organized an online page called “IMHO Club,” that is, a club of opinions. And it was so controversial, there was no news feed, but people simply sent texts that they would like to discuss - about politics, culture, science, children, anything.
We even had the current President of Latvia speak there and express his opinion. And this page was taken into circulation by the security police, such as the Latvian KGB. Moreover, I was handcuffed - in a pre-trial detention center, they put me in a cell with a drug addict in withdrawal,” Alekseev emphasized.
– IMHO club appeared in 2011, but the article was invented only in 2016, that is, 5 years later. And for me, I’m interested in how they will prove the harm?”
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