Sputnik Editor-in-Chief on Outlet Losing Office in Estonia: We Will Work From Home

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Sputnik Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has stated that Sputnik Estonia journalists would not be deterred by losing their office, they would work from home.

According to the press service of Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, Sputnik Estonia's landlord in Tallinn informed the outlet they would terminate the lease unilaterally.

"Now they made the owner of the building where our Sputnik is terminate our lease. It will not help. We will work from home. Maybe you guys should try insecticide instead", Simonyan wrote sarcastically in her Telegram channel.

According to Simonyan, Sputnik staff were first asked to visit local security services, where they were "reminded about their families, and do you really need this". Then, local banks were forbidden from working with Sputnik, so the staff could not get paid.

"It did not help. We found a way", Simonyan said.

In late October, Estonian branches of international banks froze Rossiya Segodnya's salary wires to Sputnik Estonia as well as tax payments and office rent, the international information agency said. Other banks in Estonia refused to do the transactions.

Estonia is the only Baltic country that has a full newsroom and an office of the information agency and radio Sputnik. Thirty-five people work there, 33 of them Estonian citizens. The agency pays almost 30,000 euros, or $33,000, in taxes in Estonia every month.