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Russia to take strict measures if Estonia continues to oppress Sputnik

Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko stated that such actions against Sputnik will affect the general state of Russian-Estonian relations

MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Russia will take strict response measures if the Estonian government continues to oppress reporters from the Sputnik news agency, Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Speaker Valentina Matviyenko stated on Thursday.

"We hope that Estonia will abandon this unprecedented unlawful initiative, we hope that they will think twice. Otherwise, we will take the corresponding measures, and they will be strict, because it is unacceptable to continue tolerating such actions and oppression of mass media," she said.

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According to the speaker, such actions against Sputnik will affect the general state of Russian-Estonian relations. "I would like to hope that Estonia has some semblance of sovereignty and that such statements regarding Sputnik simply coincided with the visit of UK Prime Minister [Boris Johnson] to Estonia," Matviyenko said.

On Thursday, the Russian Federation Council sent letters to OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Harlem Desir and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic, calling on them to influence the Estonian government in order to stop any attempts to hinder the work of the Sputnik news agency.

MIA Rossiya Segodnya (owner of Sputnik) said earlier that Estonia’s Police and Border Guard Board was threatening to open criminal cases against Sputnik employees if they continued to work for the head organization after January 1, 2020. Apart from that, Sputnik is forced to vacate its rented premises by the end of February as required by the renter. Sputnik’s office in Tallinn employs 35 people.

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