In Latvia the court cases against the Russian-language journalists accused of ”violating the sanction regime of the EU” because of their cooperation with the media outlets, Baltnews and Sputnik, which are part of the Russia Today media holding are going on. On December 8th the fifth court case was held in the case against Vladimir Dorofeev The next prosecution witness was to be questioned at this court session.
Paulis Iljenkov, a representative of the financial intelligence in charge of coordinating issues related to the EU sanctions, was summoned for being questioned in court. He did not appear at that session on the grounds of being on a business trip. That was the reason why the court session was postponed. This witness came to testify onDecember 8th but did not say anything substantial.
Mr Iljenkov noted that the sanctions imposed on an individual also apply to a legal entity if the person owns it by 50% or more. When asked by the defence lawyer if he knew who actually owns Rossiya Segodnya agency, Mr Iljenko replied that he did not know. At that, the court accepted materials clearly stating that the owner of MIA Rossiya Segodnya is the Russian Federation, and Dmitry Kiselyov, the general director of the holding, cannot in any way be its owner.
Then the courty brought Vladimir Dorofeev himself to testify. He stated that he is an honest person and that he does not consider himself guilty of any crime. According to him, he did not transfer any resources to persons on the sanction list. He also stated that in general, “a resource” is a specific term, and an article by a journalist is not one. Dorofeev also indicated that the sanctions were imposed personally against Kiselev, which was stated on the website of the Latvian Foreign Ministry. He noticed that two lawyers: Alexey Dimitrov and Yuri Sokolovsky confirmed to him that the sanctions were personal in nature.
After that the defence lawyer asked several clarifying questions whether Vladimir Dorofeev had tried to hide the source of income while receiving his fees from Rossiya Segodnya. Dorofeev responded that he had never tried to hide his income, that he had paid all the taxes in Latvia. The prosecutor was expected to keep on questioning. However, the prosecutor refused to confront Dorofeev with questions under the pretext that it is not his case, that he just replaces his colleague in court who was on a business trip that day. The court postponed the hearing until January 18.
The Latvian Russian Union is going to follow all these cases and we are determined to keep both society and various bodies of the EU informed. We regard these court cases politically motivated and ungrounded.
