MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency is prepared to appeal to European judicial bodies should Latvia’s court uphold the country's executive bodies' refusal to register the agency’s office in the Baltic state, First Deputy Editor-in-Chief Sergei Kochetkov said Friday.
In late August, Latvia refused an application to register Rossiya Segodnya's news bureau in the country. On Thursday, Chief Notary of Latvia’s Register of Enterprises Guna Paidere decided to uphold the decision, saying it was motivated by the fact that the media outlet's editorial line does not comply with the Constitution of Latvia and the official position of the government.
"The first step will be an appeal to the administrative district court in Riga with a complaint against Latvia's Register of Enterprises. We are ready to go through all the stages stipulated by Latvian law. We will apply to higher European courts should official [authorities in] Riga refuse our bureau judicially," Kochetkov said.
Earlier on Friday, Agency's Director General Dmitry Kiselev said the motivation of the Latvian side was absurd and similar to censorship.
The same day, Editor-in-Chief of Rossiya Segodnya Margarita Simonyan said that Latvia needed to generate more employment, but potential jobs are being "successfully displaced" by phobias in relation to Russia.
