Ban on Estonian officials’ meeting Russian reporters looks bizarre

The Kremlin believes that a ban for Estonian officials to communicate with Russian reporters looks bizarre, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

"This is a strange and hard-to-explain decision," he said, adding that "many countries have, on the contrary, introduced equal rights for all concerning access to information and officials."

"We, thank God, live in a country where the law on the media is in effect giving Russian and foreign media absolutely equal rights and equal access," the Kremlin spokesman said.

"Therefore, of course, it’s kind of bizarre for us," Peskov said.

Estonian authorities have issued an advisory to restrict communication of the country’s officials with Russian journalists. Now the officials need to obtain a permit from Estonian security services for all interviews and commentaries. The restrictions were provoked by an interview that Darja Saar, chief editor of the Russian-language ETV television channel that is being created in Estonia gave to a Russian TV channel.