PARIS, Feb 1, 2010 (AFP) - Satellite operator Eutelsat on Monday denied accusations it had caved in to Russian pressure and taken off the air a new Georgian television channel broadcasting into the Caucasus.
    It said it had broadcast Russian-language First Caucasus television for a week's test that began and ended on agreed dates last month and that it was now waiting for the channel to sign a contract to resume broadcasts.
    "From our perspective there should be no reason why we should not conclude a contract with them," said Eutelsat spokeswoman Vanessa O'Connor, adding that the station could resume broadcasting immediately once the deal was inked.
    Russian authorities did not seek to pressure Eutelsat, one of the world's three main satellite operators, over the Georgian state-funded channel, she said.
    First Caucasus, which is aimed at the Caucasus region, on Sunday issued a statement accusing Eutelsat of being a "tool of Russian censorship."
    It said Eutelsat had stopped transmitting First Caucasus after signing "a lucrative contract" with Russian satellite company Intersputnik to provide broadcasts for a unit of state-controlled Russian giant Gazprom.
    The move leaves "Intersputnik and Gazprom Media Group -- both of which adhere to the Kremlin's editorial line -- with a de facto satellite transmission monopoly over Russian-language audience," the statement added.
    But Eutelsat's spokeswoman told AFP that Intersputnik had been a client for several years and that a recently announced deal was simply "an extension of the contract which was just being renewed and extended."
    Paris-based Eutelsat was in 2008 accused of caving in to Chinese authorities and suspending use of one of its satellites for an independent Chinese-language broadcaster.
    First Caucasus provides news bulletins and information programmes focusing on events in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as in Russia's North Caucasus region, challenging Moscow's influence in the strategic region.
    A number of high-profile figures have signed on to host programmes, including Alla Dudayeva, the widow of Dzhokhar Dudayev, the Chechen president killed in a Russian rocket attack in 1996.
    The satellite channel was launched amid deep tensions between Georgia and Russia, who fought a brief war in 2008 over the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
    The channel's availability in the North Caucasus was always likely to infuriate Moscow, which has fought two wars against Chechen separatists and is facing an Islamic insurgency in the region.