Pro-Kremlin TV host fumes over European sanctions

Known for his aggressively pro-Kremlin stance, Russian TV host Dmitry Kiselyov has accused the European Union of attacking his freedom of speech after he featured in the latest EU sanctions blacklist.

In the list, he was called a “central figure of the government propaganda supporting the deployment of Russian forces in Ukraine.”

To this, Kiselyov said in an interview on Rossiya-1 television: “In my view, slapping sanctions on journalists is the lowest thing to do. It’s a blatant attack on freedom of speech,” he added, according to Agence France-Presse.

Kiselyov blamed his inclusion in the blacklist on Moscow-based opposition figures, saying they had advised Western diplomats.

“These lists in my view are created in Moscow,” Kiselyov said.

Bullish

“We know their names, we know how they write and hand it into Western embassies,” he said.

Earlier this month, the bullish 59-year-old warned on state-run media that Russia could destroy the United States with nuclear weapons.

During his weekly program on Rossiya-1, he said that Russia was the only country in the world still capable of turning the U.S. into “radioactive dust.”

He has been described by international media as Vladimir Putin’s “chief propagandist.”

Kiselyov also heads a newly formed state news agency, Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today), designed to be a tightly controlled mouthpiece for pro-Kremlin views.

(With AFP)