The Russian TV channel "Dozhd" (the editorial office is located in Latvia) stopped cooperation with the presenter Alexei Korostelev because of his phrase about helping the Russian military, uttered live. This was announced by the leading "Rain" Ekaterina Kotrikadze.
“We have decided to terminate cooperation with Alexei Korostelev from today. This is a very difficult decision for us, but the Dozhd management considers it the only possible one,” Kotrikadze said.
On the eve of the editor-in-chief of Dozhd, Tikhon Dzyadko, published a post in which he apologized for Korostelev's phrase, which sounded like this: “Send us messages by mail or write to us in our Telegram bot. <…> We hope that we were able to help many servicemen, including, for example, with equipment and simply with basic amenities at the front.”
“In this regard, it is important to note the following: the Dozhd TV channel has not been, is not and will not be engaged in assistance with equipping the Russian army – at the front or beyond. The mailbox army@tvrain.tv was created to collect personal evidence about the crimes of the Russian army in Ukraine and about violations during criminal and senseless mobilization in the Russian Federation.”
“Since the phrase heard on the air misleads our viewers, we have decided to immediately remove it from the replays and from the recording of the air. We apologize to our viewers,” wrote Dzyadko.
Earlier today, the National Council for Electronic NEPLP fined Dozhd for 10,000 euros. According to Delfi , the fine was imposed due to the fact that the TV channel designated the occupied Crimea as part of Russia and called the Russian army "our army."