Lithuania arrests local ‘Sputnik’ editor-in-chief, barring him from country for five years as ‘national security threat’

Marat Kasem, the editor-in-chief of the Russian state media network Sputnik Lithuania, was arrested at when arriving at the airport in Vilnius, where he was informed that he’s been barred from entering the country for the next five years. Kasem told the news agency RIA Novosti that the Lithuanian authorities have designated him as a national security threat.

In 2014, the Russian state media agency “Rossiya Segodnya” founded Sputnik on the remains of The Voice of Russia. The outlet now has branches in Europe, China, and the United States.