The department said that the outlet aims to influence elections and public opinion in Africa, Europe, and North and South America.
WASHINGTON—The U.S. State Department announced sanctions against media outlet RT (formerly Russia Today) and several affiliates on Sept. 13, citing accusations of global covert influence.
“As a part of RT’s expanded capabilities, in Spring 2023, the Russian government embedded within RT an entity with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence.”
The department said that the media groups aim to influence elections and public opinion on several continents, including Africa, Europe, and North and South America.
The State Department also revealed that it expects Russia to coordinate with RT to skew the October election in Moldova, by stirring up civil unrest. RT actors “coordinated with the Kremlin to attempt to foment unrest in Moldova, likely with the specific aim of causing protests to turn violent,” the statement said.
Likewise, it alleges the media outlet is being used by Russia to “destabilize the government of Argentina and escalate tensions between Argentina and its neighbors.”
Friday’s State Department announcement names state-owned broadcast agency Rossiya Segodnya, its director general Dmitry Konstantinovich Kiselev, and nonprofit TV-Novosti, which is associated with Rossiya Segodnya and controls RT. It also accuses Russian firm Ano Evraziya and its general director Nelli Alekseyevna Parutenko of a vote-purchasing scheme in Moldova.
Further, the announcement accuses RT of being a proxy weapons-purchaser for Russia through crowdfunding.
“Military equipment and supplies, to include sniper rifles, suppressors … imported in small orders to avoid unwanted scrutiny. Some of this equipment has been sourced from the People’s Republic of China,” the State Department alleges.
Officials say RT is secretly running online platforms around the world, including the German-based English platform Red (formerly Redfish), and African Stream, whose website says it gives “a voice to all Africans both at home and abroad.”
“In reality, the only voice it gives is to Kremlin propagandists,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a speech on Friday.
“I’ve instructed U.S. diplomats around the world to share the evidence that we’ve gathered on RT’s expanded capabilities and the ways it’s being used to target individual countries and the information ecosystem that we share.”