US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against Russian state-owned media company RT (formerly known as Russia Today) after new information from an employee of the company revealed that the company was “effectively operating as an arm of the Russian intelligence service.”
Blinken claimed the Russian government was setting up a new unit within RT in 2023 with “cyber operations capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence” and aimed at expanding Russian influence around the world through information operations, covert influence and military procurement.
“Today, we are exposing how Russia is deploying similar tactics around the world,” Blinken said. “Russia’s weaponization of disinformation to subvert and polarize free and open societies has spread to every region of the world.”
Blinken said the U.S. Treasury Department would impose sanctions on three entities and two individuals linked to the Russian state-run Rossiya Segodnya media outlet. The decision came after disclosures earlier this month that RT had diverted about $10 million through a local company to conservative U.S. influencers to produce videos aimed at influencing the outcome of November’s U.S. presidential election.
Speaking to reporters at the State Department on Friday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused RT of crowdfunding weapons and equipment for Russian troops in Ukraine, including sniper rifles, sights, bulletproof vests, night vision devices, drones, radios and diesel generators. Some of the equipment, including surveillance drones, may come from China, Blinken said.
“While the crowdfunding campaign is public, what is hidden is that the program is being run by RT’s executives,” Blinken said, including RT chief executive Margarita Simonyan, one of nine of the company’s employees who were hit with a visa ban earlier this month.
Blinken also detailed how RT had targeted countries across Europe, Africa and the Americas. In particular, he said RT’s leadership had worked directly with the Kremlin to target Moldova’s elections scheduled for October 2024. Moldova is a former Soviet state in Europe where Russia has been accused of waging a hybrid war to exert greater influence. In particular, he said RT’s leadership “sought to stoke unrest in Moldova, possibly with the explicit aim of transforming protests into violence.”
“RT is aware of, and stands ready to assist, Russian plans to incite protests if the Russian-backed candidate does not win the election,” Blinken said.
In response to RT’s efforts to “weaponize disinformation,” Blinken said the US, Britain and Canada would launch a “joint diplomatic campaign to rally allies and partners around the world to counter the threat posed by RT and other Russian disinformation and covert influence organizations.”