Authorities in Latvia called the agency an instrument of Russian propaganda and misinformation. The decision to block the website is related to sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union.

Latvia denied the agency the right to use the domain .lv for the news portal Sputnik Latvia, as reported by internet portal Delfi on March 29th. As reflected in the official letter received by the management of Sputnik Latvia on behalf of the NIC registrar, "registration of the domain name sputniknews.lv violates the EU Council Regulations concerning restrictive measures with regard to the threat posed to Ukrainian territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence." The letter says that violation of the provisions of the Regulation may become a basis for criminal charges under the Criminal Code of the Republic of Latvia. The registrar received a request from the MFA of Latvia that indicated that the provisions of the EU Council Regulation were being violated by the registration of the domain sputniknews.lv as Sputnik Latvia is connected to the Russian state information agency Rossiya Segodnya. The head of the agency, Dmitry Kiselyov, has been included in the EU sanction list.

According to Mārtiņš Drēģeris, the spokesman for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edgars Rinkēvičs, "this information channel has clear external political aims and is part of a comprehensive set of tools the Russian Government uses to distribute false facts and propaganda," as quoted by the website mixnews.lv.

The MFA of the Russian Federation, in turn, called such restrictions "open censorship."

A short time after, the internet portal Sputnik Latvia resumed operation under a .com domain.

  Estonia, Russia

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