Latvia has revoked the broadcast license of TV Rain, Russia's most prominent independent television channel after a correspondent called to provide unspecified aid to Russian soldiers.
The issue has engulfed TV Rain in perhaps the biggest crisis of its 12 year history, with Latvian and Ukrainian commentators accusing the station of supporting Russia's war effort. Since making his comments, the journalist has lost his job and the National Security Agency has begun investigating the station on suspicion of aiding a sanctioned state.
After the invasion of Ukraine in February, journalistics at TV Rain joined hundreds of Russian peers in exile and as the Kremlin cracked down on domestic dissent. They settled in neighboring Latvia, where they continued to counter the Kremlin's propaganda and denounce its aggression to millions of viewers back home.
After Thursday's live evening news show, the controversy started when the correspondent, Aleksey Korostelev, a well-known TV rain news host, asked viewers to send information on Russian soldiers to a tip line that the channel had established months earlier to publicize irregularities in the mobilization effort.