The party “Russian Union of Latvia” (RSL) called on the country’s residents to boycott the country’s largest cable operator Tet, which turned off the broadcast of Russian TV channels. RSL co-chairman Miroslav Mitrofanov told RIA Novosti about this.
According to him, the Tet company, under false pretenses, deprived its customers of channels in Russian, and instead offered “informational rubbish”. He noted that the shutdown of Russian channels is not associated with sanctions against Russia or the presence of state propaganda in the content of TV programs. The politician stressed that Latvia deliberately made another step “to marginalize and assimilate the Russian-speaking population of the country.”
The co-chairman of the party said that Russian-speaking people will not switch to Latvian channels, but rather will use the Internet. However, he added that Tet often maintains an “unhealthy monopoly on telecommunications services,” so the poorest and oldest people are unlikely to be able to leave the operator. He noted that in relation to these categories of citizens, the destruction of Russian-language channels looks like “senseless cruelty, endless revenge”.
Earlier it was reported that the Latvian cable television operator Tet from February 1 stopped broadcasting the Russian First Channel, NTV Mir, REN TV Baltiya, Kinokomediya and Kinomix. The company’s management noted that the restrictions were imposed due to “ambiguities in the right to represent channels” and “concerns about compliance with the sanctions regime.”