WASHINGTON -- The United States on September 13 said the Russian news outlet RT is taking orders directly from the Kremlin and working with Russian military intelligence to spread disinformation around the world to undermine democracies.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has gathered new evidence that exposes cooperation between RT and four other subsidiaries of the Rossia Segodnya media group, and it intends to warn other countries of the threat of the disinformation.
In addition to RT, Rossia Segodnya operates RIA Novosti, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik, but the announcement on September 13 focused largely on RT. The outlet, formerly known as Russia Today, has previously been sanctioned for its work to allegedly spread Kremlin propaganda and disinformation.
It was the focus of an announcement last week by the U.S. Justice Department, which warned Americans about Russia’s attempts to influence the 2024 presidential election. The State Department and Treasury Department also issued warnings last week about Rossia Segodnya and its subsidiaries and announced sanctions, but Blinken and other officials who briefed reporters at the State Department on September 13 said they wanted to stress the global nature of their warnings.
“The actions we are exposing today and the actions we exposed last week do not incorporate the full scope of Russia’s effort to undermine democracies -- far from it,” Blinken said. “Russian disinformation to subvert and polarize freedom-loving societies extends to every part of the world.”
He said the State Department will launch a diplomatic campaign to share the evidence that the United States has uncovered on RT’s expanded capabilities and urge other countries to act.
Britain and Canada will join the United States in launching the campaign to rally allies and partners around the world to address “the threat posed by RT and other machinery of Russian disinformation and covert influence,” he said.
Each government will decide on its own how to respond, but Washington will urge every ally and partner “to start by treating RT’s activities as they do other intelligence activities by Russia within their borders,” Blinken said.
n addition to the diplomatic campaign, the United States announced new sanctions on three entities and two individuals for operating Russia’s covert global influence operations, Blinken said.
Blinken warned in particular about Russia’s attempts to influence the upcoming presidential election in Moldova.
He said RT and its employees for years have coordinated directly with the Kremlin to support Russian government efforts to influence previous elections, and its efforts this year likely will be aimed at causing protests to turn violent, he said.
“We believe RT will almost certainly leverage its expanded capabilities to coordinate with Russian intelligence services to try to manipulate the outcome of Moldova’s upcoming election,” he said.
Blinken also described what he said is a large online crowd-funding program in Russia to provide support and military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The operation aims to fund such things as sniper rifles, night-vision equipment, drones, radio equipment, and diesel generators.
“The program is out in the open, but what is hidden is that the program is administered by the leaders of RT,” he said.
