Sputnik Latvia editor-in-chief sentenced to two years in prison for violating EU sanctions

The verdict of the first instance court can still be appealed to the Riga Regional Court.

The prosecutor is satisfied with the verdict, as it coincides with the punishment she requested during the court arguments.

Rozhentsov wrote a statement that he would not participate in the trial, so when the verdict was announced, the court changed the notice to change his place of residence to custody as a preventive measure. If the police fail to bring the defendant to prison, he will be put on the wanted list. The prosecutor's office is not aware of Rozhentsov's whereabouts.

In order to circumvent and violate EU sanctions and receive remuneration for his work duties related to the operation of information resources owned by the russian state propaganda agency rossiya segodnya, Rozhentsov entered into several service agreements with the media holding.

The agreements stipulated that Rozhentsov, on behalf of the client, would prepare materials on economic, cultural and social topics related to Latvian immigrants and their descendants in russia, according to the prosecutor's office. It was also agreed that Rozhentsov would provide services related to interactive and editorial activities, selection and placement of text and multimedia materials on the customer's websites.

From October 20, 2016, to December 23, 2019, Rozhentsov continued to act as the editor-in-chief of the Sputnik Latvia project, an information resource owned by rossiya segodnya, and provided services for the preparation of publications, selection of materials and their placement on Sputnik's websites.

Thus, during this period, Rozhentsov provided services to rossiya segodnya for the production of information content and provided the media holding, whose CEO is Dmitry Kiselev, who is under sanctions, with the opportunity to realize the department's goals of strengthening russia's national interests in the information space, publishing media and creating Internet portals, the indictment says.

The work performed by Rozhentsov and the materials he prepared should be considered an economic resource in the sense of EU regulation, as they were used to support the activities of rossiya segodnya, including the creation of an appropriate propaganda and information space.

By continuing to perform his duties, preparing and publishing materials for the resources belonging to rossiya segodnya, Rozhentsov indirectly provided an economic resource to Kiselyov and violated EU sanctions for selfish reasons, the prosecutor's office summarizes.

Source: Delfi