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Russia urges OSCE’s action over expulsion of Russian journalists from Latvia

On January 3, a reporter of the Russian TVTs television channel, Anatoly Kurayev was deported from Latvia

MOSCOW, January 5. /TASS/. Russia expects the OSCE to take concrete steps and to voice a clear position with regard to the deportation of Russian journalists from Latvia, Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday.

"As a full-fledged member of the OSCE, Russia expects OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Dasir to voice a clear public position and to take concrete steps in response to the deportation of Russian journalists from Latvia," she said.

"During his recent visit to Moscow, Mr. Desir repeatedly stressed that the principle of mutuality in this kind of issues is the way to devastation of the information environment. Now it is in his power to fulfill the obligations he undertook to resolve such situations," Zakharova said in a statement, which is published on the Foreign Ministry’s website.

Deportation of Russian reporters

On January 3, a reporter of the Russian TVTs television channel, Anatoly Kurayev was deported from Latvia.

Kurayev arrived in Riga on January 1 and stayed in a hotel. He was detained in a shopping mall and told that he "was banned for lifetime to cross into Latvia."

On January 4, Kurayev’s wife Olga, who is also a journalist, was blacklisted and deported from Latvia.

In an interview with the Baltcom radio, Kurayve said he was told that he was posting a threat to Latvia’s national security.

In December 2017, three Russians, who arrived in Latvia to hold an international airsoft tournament, were detained and deported from the country as they had been blacklisted from entering the country.

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