US authorities on Friday announced new sanctions against RT amid sprawling accusations that the state-run media conglomerate has engaged in covert influence operations and election interference on a global scale.
“RT moved beyond being simply a media outlet and has been an entity with cyber capabilities. It is also engaged in information operations, covert influence, and military procurement. These operations are targeting countries around the world, including in Europe, Africa, and North and South America,” the State Department alleged.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke in depth about the allegations during a press conference Friday and outlined the plans of the US and its allies to counter Russian disinformation moving forward:
Russian weaponization of disinformation to subvert and polarize free and open societies extends to every part of the world. In response, today the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada are launching a joint diplomatic campaign to rally allies and partners around the world to join us in addressing the threat posed by RT and other machinery of Russian disinformation and covert influence.
Earlier this month, RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, was also designated for sanctions over accusations of malign influence operations in the US.
The new sanctions apply to several organizations and individuals linked to RT, including Rossiya Segodnya, a news conglomerate established in 2013 in what was broadly seen as a bid by Russian President Vladimir Putin to strengthen his grip on the Russian media following large-scale protests challenging his authoritarian rule. In December 2013, the Kremlin liquidated news giant RIA Novosti without warning following the decades-old agency providing coverage of the protests, political arrests and trials of opposition activists. Rossiya Segodnya — a transliteration of the Russian translation of Russia Today, RT’s original name — was hastily erected in its stead, with Simonyan tapped to serve as editor-in-chief. Placed at its helm as director general was Dmitry Kiselev, a firebrand talk-show host known for advocating for the destruction of the bodies of LGBTQ+ people to prevent organ donation after their deaths, as well as the destruction of the US by Russian nuclear weapons.
Kiselev was also included in Friday’s sanctions, as was TV-Novosti, which controls RT.
The new sanctions follow allegations that RT personnel provided direct support to Ilan Shor, a US-sanctioned Moldovan oligarch, in an attempt to influence Moldova’s October presidential election. The Treasury Department also sanctioned ANO Evraziya and its general director, Nelli Parutenko, for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to funnel money into Moldova to buy votes and support pro-Kremlin candidates.
The sanctions freeze any US assets of those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them. The move is part of broader US efforts to counter what it describes as Russia’s malign influence operations globally.
In an article posted as breaking news to its English-language website, RT quoted its own press office as having responded to the new sanctions with sarcasm: “We’ve been broadcasting straight out of the KGB headquarters all this time.” The press office added: “We’re running out of popcorn to sit and watch what the US government will come up with next about us.”
