Latvia bans Russian TV channels citing EU sanctions

Latvia's media watchdog said on Friday it had banned nine Russian television channels due to European Union sanctions against their co-owner, billionaire Yury Kovalchuk, a banker said to have ties to the Kremlin. The EU blacklisted Kovalchuk in 2014 in response to Russia's takeover of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.

"These nine channels are banned in Latvia because one of their beneficiaries... Yuri Kovalchuk, has been placed on the EU sanctions list as a person involved in violations of Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence," Ivars Abolins, the deputy chief of Latvia's National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP,) told AFP. The bans will apply until Brussels removes Kovalchuk from its sanctions list, Abolins added.

In January the NEPLP also slapped a three-month ban on the Moscow-based TV channel Rossiya RTR for alleged hate speech and warmongering against Ukraine, echoing a similar ban in 2016.

A member of the EU and NATO since 2004, Latvia was under Moscow's thumb during the Soviet era.