Disinfo: Tallinn waged crusade against critical media

Summary

Tallinn waged its aggressive crusade against critical media under the pretext of observing the EU sanctions regime, which includes personal sanctions against the director of Sputnik’s parent holding. Estonia is the only EU country which has used the law for such purposes.

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative painting Western governments as hostile toward "alternative voices" in the media, particularly Russian ones.

Estonia is on the 11th place of Reporters without Borders Press freedom index. Estonia has not blocked Sputnik Estonia's website, it is accessible and operational. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Reinsalu has emphasized that Estonia has not taken any measures against the portal's media content: "They are financial sanctions aimed at economic activity. I believe it to be justified. We have notified the European Commission's Legal Service. European agencies have said in the Commission that steps taken by Estonia in exercising sanctions policy are warranted."

Therefore all actions taken in relation to Sputnik are aimed at economic activity and not against the outlet's news content, and have a basis in both EU (see Art. 2(1)) and Estonian (see para. 93.1) legislation. The Article 2 of the Council Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 on the territorial integrity of Ukraine foresees freezing the assets of Dmitry Kiselyov, the Director General of Rossiya Segodnya. As a result, Estonian banks froze accounts of Rossiya Segodnya and the Financial Intelligence Unit informed persons employed or contracted by Rossiya Segodnya that knowing performance of work or services to a sanctioned person was forbidden.

Sputnik was created by a Presidential decree with the aim to “report on the state policy of Russia abroad”. Numerous reports have described how top managers from all the large government-controlled outlets and some influential private media attend the weekly meetings where "media managers receive guidelines that “help” them not to overstep the Kremlin’s so-called “double white lines”".

The EU vs Disinfo team has found 49 different Sputnik websites from all over the world and 31 of them are in the Disinfrormation cases database, meaning those outlets have been reported publishing disinformation. Sputnik Estonia is represented in that database both in Estonian and in Russian languages.

It is not true that Estonia is the only country to have followed the procedure. In 2015, Barclays bank closed the account used by the agency in the UK. In 2016, Latvia's domain registry shut the website of Sputnik Latvia after receiving a letter of concern from the Latvian Foreign Ministry, which drew attention to Sputnik's coverage of Ukraine and routine denial of the embattled nation's territorial integrity. In July 2019, Latvian authorities blocked access to the online portal baltnews.lv, owned by Rossiya Segodnya, referring to the EU sanctions. In mid-2019, a court in Vilnius ruled on blocking Sputnik Lithuania over copyright issues.

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  • Reported in: Issue 179
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 10/01/2020
  • Outlet language(s) English
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: Estonia, Russia
  • Keywords: Freedom of speech, Dmitry Kiselyov, Media, Sputnik, Sanctions, Russophobia
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Disproof

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Disproof

This publication represents a mix of conspiracies consistent with recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about NATO aggressive plans towards Belarus and Russia, socio-economic degradation in the Baltic States, lost sovereignty / external control. The disinformation message involves a major element of Nazi ideology – Drang nach Osten – to draw parallels between Nazi Germany and the US / West / NATO. It also mispresents Latvian and Estonian domestic legislation on citizenship, demographic and migration trends as NATO-driven Russophobic policies aimed to depopulate the Baltic states. NATO's presence in the region is at the request of the host nations. NATO has taken defensive and proportionate steps in response to a changed security environment. Following Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine, Allies requested a greater NATO presence in the region. A 2016 Gallup poll found that most people in Allied countries in the Baltic region associate NATO with the protection of their country.

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Disproof

No evidence given. This is a conspiracy theory, part of a well-established Russian disinformation narrative about a global elite secretly ruling the world, and specifically, a so-called ‘deep state’ in the United State that promotes aggression wars and prevents US reconciliation with Russia.

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