Russia has vowed retaliation against the United States in response its actions against media executives with RT, the country’s state-controlled media network.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment against Elena Afanasyeva and Kostiantyn Kalashnikov for their alleged involvement in a nefarious scheme in which both acted as Russian operatives and paid an influencer-based media company in the U.S. millions of dollars to promote political issues meant to influence how people vote in the election.
“The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said. “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.”
Russian government officials denied any wrongdoing and claimed the indictment was essentially performative politics to stoke fears in the country’s population about Russia trying to sabotage and influence the 2024 elections. It also claimed that such actions were meant to suppress dissenting viewpoints that run counter to contemporary political ideological beliefs, according to the BBC.
“When the authorities resort to such primitive ways of influencing their voters, this is the decline of ‘liberal democracies,’” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “There will be a response.”
“We warn that attempts to expel Russian journalists from the territory of the United States, create unacceptable conditions for their work or any other forms of obstruction of their activities, including with the use of visa tools, will become the basis for taking symmetrical and/or asymmetric retaliatory measures against the American media,” Zakharova added.
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RT also denied any wrongdoing and mocked the accusations.
“Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and RT’s interference in the U.S. elections,” RT told Reuters.
