Moscow, Dec 28 (Agency) RIA Novosti’s Telegram channel is being blocked in Europe, including in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Italy, France, Greece and Poland, Sputnik correspondents reported on Saturday. When trying to view materials on the channel, a message appears stating that the channel allegedly violated local legislation, without giving any specific examples, the correspondents reported. The RIA Novosti channel had more than 250,000 daily user views from devices in European languages. Telegram channels of other Russian media, including Izvestia, Rossiya 1, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Channel One and NTV, have also been blocked, correspondents reported. Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs, accused Western governments of cracking down on Russian media abroad to hide the truth and stop people from making their own conclusions. Slutsky suggested that retaliatory measures were needed to be taken against Telegram channels that are run by Ukrainian nationalists. He told Sputnik he would ask the Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor in the coming days to block Ukrainian propaganda channels from broadcasting on Telegram.
“We should respond in the same fashion and block access to the propaganda channels of the Ukronazis, of which there are still quite a few in Telegram,” Slutsky said, adding that such media channels exerted information pressure on Russians, especially on teenagers. In June, the EU Council said that it had approved the 14th package of sanctions against Russia, which includes a ban on some Russian media, such as RIA Novosti, Izvestia, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. In response, Russia restricted access to a number of European media outlets, including AFP and Spiegel. The situation with Russian media in the West and in Europe has become increasingly tense in recent years. In 2016, the European Parliament adopted a resolution stating the need to counter Russian media, with Sputnik and RT named as main threats. A number of Western politicians accused Sputnik and RT of interfering in elections in the United States and France without providing any evidence to back their claims. Russian officials have dismissed the allegations as unfounded.