January 23, 2015 - Present - Anton Laskhishvili 100%
Media Profiles
"Sputnik-Georgia"
Sputnik-Georgia LLC was officially registered in the Public Registry of Georgia on 23 January 2015. However, this main media platform of Russian propaganda in Georgia, as well as in other countries, was first presented by the news agency Russia Segodnia on 10 November 2014.
Sputnik is a multimedia international project established under the decree of the President of Russia on 9 December 2013. Owned by the Russian government, Sputnik replaced the news agencies Ria Novosti and Voice of Russia in the international arena. This media platform, which is led by Dmitry Kiselyov, planned to broadcast in 30 languages in 130 cities of 34 countries.
In November 2014, Sputnik started illegal radio broadcast in Georgia using the frequency FM 101.4. This frequency belonged to R-Radio LLC. The Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) penalized R-Radio LLC and the international news agency Newsgeorgia with 5 000 GEL, in total, for the illegal broadcast and moreover, issued a written warning to R-Radio LLC for the violation of obligations assumed under N B104 licence.
After the imposition of the sanction by the GNCC, Sputnik stopped using radio frequency and switched to the online platform publishing there multimedia materials of anti-Western content.
The owner of 100 percent of shares in Sputnik-Georgia LLC is Anton (Tato) Laskhishvili who has been the editor-in-chief of Svobodnaya Gruziya newspaper since 1991.
Sputnik is housed in the former Ria Novosti office. According to the report of damoukidebloba.com, this office has been used for holding press conferences by Antifascist Coalition of Multinational Georgia (Revaz Gogidze, General Tristan Tsitelashvili), an employee of Eurasian Institute Shota Apkhaidze, National Congress of Slav People of Georgia, Political Movement of Veterans of Law Enforcement Agencies and Patriots of Georgia (Nodar Tsotniashvili) and others.
Among various languages, Sputnik broadcasts in two state languages of Georgia – Georgian and Abkhazian.
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