Armenia suspends license of Russian broadcaster Sputnik

Armenia on Wednesday said it was temporarily suspending the license of Russian broadcaster Sputnik's local branch for "ironic and offensive" comments a presenter made about the country on air.

The commission responsible for television and radio said the license of Tospa, the broadcaster of Sputnik Armenia, was being suspended for 30 days after Russian Tigran Keosayan's remarks in November.

His opinions do not befit what a "political commentator, presenter and citizen of another country" has the "moral right" to say, it added, leading to the penalty decided on Tuesday.

Keosayan also encouraged "illegal acts", the commission said without elaborating.

The pro-Kremlin presenter is married to Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of the international channel Russia Today and a loyal follower of President Vladimir Putin.

Sputnik is a state-run Russian media organization operating in several countries through radio channels or websites and has been accused of spreading Kremlin "disinformation".

The European Union, Britain, and Canada banned it shortly after Russia sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.

In a separate case, the commission inflicted a fine of $1,200 on the channel for comments that "did not correspond to reality" and was likely "to cause panic" in Armenia.

The Caucasus country is a traditional Russian ally, but relations have soured since its historic enemy Azerbaijan seized the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh in September.

Yerevan says Moscow did not do enough to stop the lightning Azerbaijani offensive, where Baku seized territory it had not controlled for decades from Armenian separatists.