Marat Kasem, former editor of the Russian propaganda channel Sputnik Lithuania, was recently released on bail from prison in Latvia and admits that his aim at Sputnik was to destabilise the situation in Lithuania. He has now decided not to return to Russia, reports Latvia’s public broadcaster LSM.
“What we were dealing with was nothing related to journalism. It was classic propaganda,” Kasem admitted to LSM.
“I had an editorial office whose main goal was to destabilise the situation in Lithuania. By the way, I was not so closely connected with Latvia,” he continued.
Kasem is a Latvian citizen who lived and worked for several years in Moscow in the media group Rossiya Segodnya, which also owns Sputnik Lithuania.
He came back to Latvia in late 2022 and was detained on January 3, 2023. He is suspected of providing economic resources to a Kremlin propaganda outlet which is subject to European Union sanctions.
Criminal proceedings have been opened for a possible breach of EU sanctions, and he has been fined 15,500. He has been pronounced a persona non grata in Lithuania. Last July, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated that Kasem had left Latvia for Russia.
Kasem claims that he worked for Sputnik Lithuania for money rather than ideological reasons. He was paid a salary of several thousand euros, provided with accommodation and a car.
According to Kasem, the guidelines for propaganda work come directly from the Russian presidential administration, in particular from First Deputy Chief of Staff Aleksei Gromov.
“They have meetings every Thursday, where [Rossiya Segodnia head Dmitry] Kiselyov, [Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria] Zakharova and other directors of propaganda agencies and TV channels participate. [...] Gromov is the kind of person in the administration who is responsible for the information space in Russia and abroad. He explains to them what needs to be presented and how it needs to be served,” Kasem told the Latvian public broadcaster.
He also used to host a talk show with Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, and claimed that even jokes on the show were pre-planned so that Zakharova could respond wittily.
Sputnik’s coverage was even allegedly influenced by Latvian MEP Tatjana Ždanoka, who, as a recent investigation revealed, has been cooperating with the Russian secret services for decades.
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