In July, TV Rain, Russia’s only independent news channel, resumed broadcasting from Latvia after a five-month hiatus. But soon afterwards, the reporters realised not everyone in the Baltic state was happy to have them there.

Latvia’s security services warned that some of the hundreds of Russian reporters in the country, who fled Russia after it banned critical coverage of its invasion of Ukraine, could be undercover spies. Riga has also led calls to ban all Russians from obtaining EU tourist visas, leaving media workers facing an even more uncertain future.

The backlash has paused Latvia’s effort to make Riga a hub for Russia’s independent journalists and illustrated the difficulties for Kremlin opponents of operating in a country with bitter memories of Soviet occupation.

“It’s inevitable. There’s a war and so many other sore moments between Latvia and Russia,” said Tikhon Dzyadko, TV Rain’s editor. “I’m not surprised by the harsh reception; I’m just sad that some people aren’t even watching what we put out. But we won’t change anything that we do.”

TV Rain’s broadcasts to its growing audience, including 3.3mn subscribers on its YouTube channel, offer a radically different picture of the Ukraine conflict to Russian state television, which does not call the campaign a “war” or “invasion”.

The channel has run several exposés and even interviewed a Ukrainian official who spoke of the pleasure he got from “watching videos of dead Russian soldiers”.

Dzyadko said he would not return to Russia “until it becomes a normal country again” and wanted TV Rain to “do what we can to make that moment happen sooner”.

After a brief stint in Georgia, Dzyadko and the channel’s founder Natalia Sindeyeva sought a safer home in the EU and opened a new headquarters in Latvia.

The government is helping them with the legal and financial small print. Latvia has admitted 247 Russian journalists since the start of the war and 200 of their family members, a foreign ministry representative told parliament this month. (The Financial Times has also temporarily moved some of its Russian correspondents to Riga.)

“The Latvian government made a clear political decision,” said Kirill Martynov, who edits a new edition of newspaper Novaya Gazeta in Latvia after its Russian edition suspended publication under government pressure in March. “The idea is that Riga is going to fight for freedom of speech.”

Riga also hopes the effort to boost Russian independent media will sway the country’s large ethnic Russian community, which is about a quarter of its 2mn total population, towards its pro-Ukraine stance. Regulators took down local broadcasts of Russia’s two main state TV channels last year and banned the remaining 80 Russian entertainment channels in June.

The large Russian-speaking minority, some of whom harbour pro-Moscow sentiment, has long been a source of tension with the Kremlin, which accuses Latvia of oppressing them.

In May, hundreds of people left flowers at a monument celebrating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the second world war, an event the Kremlin has used to boost support for its invasion of Ukraine. The incident prompted lawmakers to speed up plans to remove 69 Soviet monuments across Latvia.

Tension over the monuments, which also came to the fore in Estonia this week, “is a crucial story” for TV Rain as Latvia prepares for elections in October, said Dzyadko. “It’s about Russian speakers and non-Russian speakers, sentiment about the [second world] war and how Russia has been manipulating those feelings for decades.”

But it has made the channel the focus of criticism from coalition lawmakers who want Latvia, a Nato member, to go further in reducing Russians’ presence. Jānis Dombrava, an MP from the National Alliance party, said he saw no benefit for Latvia in “stimulating the Russian community with journalists who are going to teach us not to take the monument down”.

When anchor Ekaterina Kotrikadze challenged Riga’s mayor, Mārtiņš Staķis, about the monuments, the interview drew a furious reaction. Riga theatre director Alvis Hermanis wrote on Facebook that it now “seems their goal is to destroy our country from the inside”.

In other broadcasts Kotrikadze has spoken out about EU sanctions and visa restrictions that have made it harder for the anti-Putin Russians who watch the channel to relocate to Europe. That has led to accusations from prominent Latvians that TV Rain is trying to undermine western support for Ukraine.

Staķis said the criticism of TV Rain was “unfair” and praised Kotrikadze for not giving him “a pat on the head”.

“TV Rain is a huge possibility for Latvia — we need to treat it like that.”

The backlash has meant Russian journalists are not exempt from a ban introduced at the start of August on issuing new visas, except for attending funerals. And this week Latvia’s prime minister Krišjānis Kariņš said the coalition would introduce legislation that would prevent Russians from renewing residence permits.

A spokesperson for Kariņš told the FT the government had “no plans to change our policy regarding those Russian independent journalists already working from Latvia”.

But the reporters may face more stringent attention from Latvia’s intelligence services, which have voiced concerns Russia could use them as pawns.

“The activity launched by the Russian independent media in Latvia, which is directed against Putin’s regime, will force the Russian authorities to pay more attention to our country,” said the VDD, Latvia’s counter-intelligence service. “It cannot be ruled out that certain media outlets that started operating in Latvia or their representatives have links with the Russian intelligence and security services.”

Martynov dismissed the idea that there were spies among the exiled reporters. “Most of these people left Russia because they could have been sent to prison there,” he said.

TV Rain’s journalists feel caught in a bind, but they are determined to continue their work. Dzyadko, who is married to Kotrikadze, said the channel was trying to find a way to balance its growing audience’s differing expectations amid the pressure on Russians in Latvia.

“One of the main questions is how to find the right tone of conversation,” he said. “What’s happening is a catastrophe. Ukraine’s been destroyed and Russia is degrading. Everyone’s on edge. We need to work out the right way to talk about it.”