MOSCOW, January 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Dozhd TV channel has violated the federal law on mass media in clause 49 which stipulates that a journalist shall respect the rights and legitimate interests of citizens, the Federal Service for Supervision of Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) said in a preliminary letter of criticism forwarded to Dozhd television on Thursday, which, unlike a letter of warning, entails no punitive sanctions against Dozhd.

On the eve of the 70th anniversary since lifting the Leningrad blockade Dozhd television put a question on its website formulated as follows: "Should Leningrad have been surrendered to save hundreds of thousands of lives?"

"Questions or statements of this kind might be taken as an insult to WWII veterans and the survivors of the Leningrad blockade who gave all their strength for the sake of the victory over Nazi Germany", Roskomnadzor said in the letter.

Earlier, a number of cable TV providers, including Akado, R-Telecom, Rostelecom and Satellite operator NTV-Plus had declared they might suspend Dozhd broadcasts.

The Tricolor TV cable network has declared it might cut Dozhd television off the cable network "if Dozhd continued incorrect content policies for the next 30 days to follow.