Russia restricts access to three Estonian media outlets

The official announcement on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website states that access has been restricted to the Estonian Kaitseliit (Defense League) volunteer corps' blog Propastop, public broadcaster ERR, and Delfi. Photo: Toomas Huik

Starting Tuesday, Russia has restricted access to over 81 media outlets operating in European Union countries, including three Estonian media outlets.

The official announcement on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website states that access has been restricted to the Estonian Kaitseliit (Defense League) volunteer corps' blog Propastop, public broadcaster ERR, and Delfi.

Prominent European outlets banned by Russia include German newspapers Der Spiegel, Die Zeit, and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, French newspapers Le Monde and La Croix, the French news agency AFP, Spanish newspapers El Mundo and El Pais, Italian newspapers La Stampa and La Repubblica, Austrian public broadcaster ORF, and pan-European outlets Politico and Euobserver.

The Russian Foreign Ministry justified the restriction on access to European media outlets by citing the European Council's decision on May 17 to limit access to Russian outlets RIA Novosti, Izvestia, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta. The restrictions took effect on Tuesday, June 25.

The Estonian newspaper Postimees had previously been blocked by Roskomnadzor, Russia's Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media, at the request of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office on March 16, 2022.