US announces fresh sanctions on Russian state media for raising money for Moscow’s troops in Ukraine

The U. S. State Department on Friday announced fresh sanctions on Russian state media, accusing a Kremlin news outlet of working for the Russian military and running fundraising campaigns to pay for sniper rifles, body armour and other equipment for soldiers battling in Ukraine, an official statement said. While the outlet, RT, has in the past been sanctioned for its work to spread Kremlin propaganda and disinformation, the new allegations suggest its role goes some distance beyond influence operations.

As a replacement, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that RT is a key a section of Russia’s war machine and its efforts to undermine its democratic adversaries.

“RT wants its new covert intelligence capabilities, like its longstanding propaganda disinformation efforts, to remain hidden,” Blinken told reporters.

“Our strongest antidote to Russia’s lies is the truth. It’s shining a bright light on what the Kremlin is attempting to do below the quilt of darkness.”

RT has also created web sites posing as legitimate news sites to spread disinformation and propaganda in Europe, Africa, South The united statesa. and in other places, officials said. They're saying the outlet has also expanded its use of cyber operations with a fresh unit with ties to Russian intelligence created last year.

The sanctions announced on Friday target RT’s parent organization, TV-Novosti, besides as a related state media group is often known as Rossiya Segodnya and its general director Dmitry Kiselyov. A 0.33 organisation and its leader, Nelli Parutenko, were also sanctioned for allegedly running a vote-buying scheme in Moldova designed to help Moscow’s hottest candidates in an upcoming election.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested the sanctions against RT were unnecessary because it has already been sanctioned.

“I feel a fresh profession should appear within america — a specialist in sanctions already imposed against Russia,” she wrote on her Telegram channel.

Russia’s global propaganda work is receiving extra scrutiny within the months leading as much as the United States election.

The group-sourcing effort ran on Russian social media platforms and sought to lift funds for military supplies, numerous which have been procured in China, officials said.

There have been no obvious connections between RT and the fundraising campaign, or any indication that Chinese officials knew their products were being sold to Russia.

The list of supplies also included night-vision equipment, drones, radios and generators.

RT’s actions show “it’s now not only a firehouse of disinformation, but a fully fledged member of the intelligence apparatus and operation of the Russian government,” said Jamie Rubin, who heads the State Department’s Global Engagement Centre.

Last week, the Biden administration seized Kremlin-run web sites and charged two RT employees with covertly paying a Tennessee company nearly $10 million for its content.

The corporate then paid a couple of well known some distance-right influencers, whose content often mirrored Russian talking points. Two of the influencers said they'd no idea their work was being supported by Russia.

This summer, intelligence officials warned that Russia was using unwitting American citizens to spread its propaganda by disguising it in English on sites well liked by American citizens.

Officials say Russia seeks to divide American citizens beforehand of the election as a mode of cutting back give a boost to for Ukraine.

Russia’s influence operations also appear designed to supply a boost to former President Donald Trump, who has criticised Ukraine and the NATO alliance while praising Russian President Vladimir Putin.