The United States is attempting to suppress the “inconvenient truth” by imposing sanctions on Russian media, according to Anatoly Antonov, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington. Antonov claimed that these actions are evidence of the current US administration’s “Russophobia.” On Thursday, US officials announced a renewed effort to target Russian media, including RT, with further sanctions for alleged government-sponsored attempts to manipulate American public opinion ahead of the November presidential election.
The new measures include charges against two Russians identified as RT employees for allegedly conspiring to commit money laundering and blacklisting ten individuals and two entities with frozen property and assets in the US. Furthermore, a new visa restriction policy has been imposed targeting people Washington accuses of acting on behalf of the Russian government.
The administration has made another attack against Russia,” Antonov said at a press briefing. Its Russophobic policy has been confirmed, and is unlikely to change in the future.” He argued that the latest sanctions are an attempt by US Democrats to shift some of the blame for their mistakes during the electoral struggle to Russia.
To justify their actions, they are using lies, trying to discredit Russian media, which provide a small sip of the truth on American politics,” Antonov stated. RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, who was among those blacklisted, mocked Washington for once again claiming that the outlet was attempting to interfere in the US elections.
In a post on Telegram, she stated that the US apparently doesn’t have “any other strategies except to scaremonger about the almighty RT.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the measures point to the “irreversible degradation” of democratic values in the US and its “transformation into a totalitarian neoliberal dictatorship.