The U.S. State Department on Friday said it was imposing more sanctions on Russia-backed international broadcaster RT amid concerns that the news outlet is fundraising on behalf of a widely-criticized military effort.
Specifically, officials with the State Department said RT (formerly Russia Today) had operated online fundraisers that generated money used by the Russian military to procure weapons and other equipment for its ongoing combat action in Ukraine.
For more than two years, American officials have criticized RT for running a propaganda campaign that was largely favorable to Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine. The accusations lobbed against RT this week are among the first to accuse the outlet of providing direct and material support to government forces beyond the typical scope of a TV broadcaster.
“RT wants its new covert intelligence capabilities, like its longstanding propaganda disinformation efforts, to remain hidden,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference on Friday. “Our most powerful antidote to Russia’s lies is the truth. It’s shining a bright light on what the Kremlin is trying to do under the cover of darkness.”
The State Department says RT operated a number of social media accounts targeting Russian speakers, who were asked to donate funds for military supplies in connection with the Ukraine war. The social media profiles had little resemblance to RT’s editorial products, and there was no clear connection between the broadcaster and the profiles, officials claimed.
Eventually, funds generated from those social media campaigns were used to buy weapons in China that were given to Russian forces for military action in and around Ukraine, the State Department asserted. Supplies that were purchased included body armor, sniper rifles, night-vision goggles, two-way radios and diesel generators, officials said.
The State Department designated three organizations and two individuals this week, including the parent company of RT, TV Novosti, and a separate Russia-backed media organization called Rossiya Segodnya. The organizations and individuals are not restricted in broadcasting or otherwise news-gathering in the United States, despite the sanctions.
While the State Department played up RT’s alleged involvement in procuring weapons for the war in Ukraine, some of the sanctions imposed on Friday had nothing to do with that claim. The designation of Rossiya Segodnya and its director general, Dmitry Kiselev, was actually connected to an alleged scheme to influence the outcome of the Moldovan election, according to a press release reviewed by The Desk. Two other designations involved financial firm ANO Evraziya and its General Director Nelli Parutenko for allegedly participating in a financial scheme to buy votes in connection with the Moldova election, the press release said.
Still, the State Department said this week it intends to work with “other governments” to blow the whistle on RT’s covert operations that fall outside the conventional duties of a conventional news organization.
To that end, the State Department characterized RT as part of Russia’s intelligence apparatus, by which high-level executives at the broadcaster regularly engage with government officials on various intelligence gathering and propaganda-related campaigns.
For instance, last year, RT co-mingled with “an entity with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence,” which was “focused primarily on influence and intelligence operations all over the world.”
“Under the cover of RT, information produced through this entity’s capabilities flows to Russia’s intelligence services, Russian media outlets, Russian mercenary groups, and other various state and proxy arms of the Russian Government,” the State Department said. “Head of RT Margarita Simonyan and RT Deputy Editor-in-Chief Anton Anisimov have had direct, witting knowledge of this enterprise.”
The State Department offered no specific information about what, exactly, the cyber organization did while it was embedded within RT, and offered no concrete proof to demonstrate that Simonyan and Anisimov had direct knowledge about the situation at the channel — though, as the top executives, they likely would have been advised, or at least aware, if the allegations are true.
Government officials offered more specific information about alleged efforts by RT and its executives to support the Russian government’s international propaganda efforts. To this end, the State Department said TV Novosti and RT have launched regional websites that purport to offer legitimate news stories, but are actually part of broader campaigns to influence populations with misinformation.
In Germany, for instance, RT operates an English-language news website called “Red,” which was spun out of a now-defunct website called Redfish. The State Department said Red has “participated in the organization of protests in Germany,” citing reports from a national newspaper.
A similar news outlet spun up in Africa, called African Stream, and RT has even hired local journalists in France to “run influence projects targeting French speakers,” the State Department said.
The sanctions against organizations and individuals connected with RT comes about a week after the U.S. Department of Justice announced a criminal indictment naming two RT employees as co-conspirators in a scheme to “distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging.”
The employees, 31-year-old Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and 27-year-old Elena Afanasyeva, allegedly funneled millions of dollars to a Tennessee-based media operation as part of a broader propaganda effort orchestrated by the Russian government.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
The identity of the Tennessee-based company was not revealed, but news organizations quickly put together that it was Tenet Media, which has worked with high-profile online influencers like Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin in the past. Most of the commentators it works with are characterized as conspiratorial and “right-wing,” and many appear to be supporters of former President Donald Trump.
Tenet Media itself has not been charged, and none of the influencers it worked with have been accused of any legal wrongdoing. Some have spoken publicly since the indictment, claiming they were unaware of the Russia-backed campaign, felt misled by Tenet Media and vowing to break off business-related connections to the company.
