Latvia blocks Kremlin-linked website because of threat to Ukraine's sovereignty
Latvian domain administrator blocked the bestnews.lv website that is associated with the Russia Today news agency, reports RIA Novosti news outlet.
Latvian national domain registrar explained its decision referring to the requirement of the Latvian Foreign Ministry, which said that baltnews.lv news outlet violates the decision of the European Union of March 17, 2014, on sanctions against Russia because of the annexation of Crimea.
"Registration of baltnews.lv is a violation of the provisions of the regulations, and, therefore, persons guilty of violation can be prosecuted under the Criminal code of the Latvian Republic," reads the letter that was sent to the site administrator from the domain registry administrator.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the blocking of the webpage as censorship.
"We see in this action the desire of Riga to censor its information space from independent media," reads the statement of Russian Foreign Ministry.