(CNN) – The Biden administration is expected to announce this Friday a major effort to curb RT’s global influence and expose what it says is the Russian state media network’s key role in the Kremlin’s global intelligence and influence operations, according to a report. senior administration official and three other sources familiar with the matter.
The State Department will reveal declassified US intelligence findings suggesting that RT is fully integrated into Russia’s intelligence operations around the world and will begin a diplomatic campaign to provide countries with information about the risks associated with RT’s activities, the official said.
A key finding of the new U.S. intelligence material is that, for more than a year, the Russian government has quietly embedded an intelligence-gathering unit within RT that focuses on operations with global influence, one of the sources said. familiar. That activity has been part of what U.S. officials describe as a major expansion of RT’s role as the Kremlin’s arm and mouthpiece abroad. The activity goes beyond propaganda and covert influence operations, and even includes military procurement, the source said.
The US goal is to make sure countries know that RT and Russian intelligence agencies are working together in an attempt to sow division and damage democratic processes, while making it much more difficult for RT to operate globally, the official said.
Contacted by CNN, RT responded with a mocking email that said, among other things: “We have been broadcasting directly from KGB headquarters this entire time.”
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This focus on the global activity of RT and its subsidiaries on behalf of Russian intelligence comes just over a week after the Biden administration announced a major set of measures to address similar Russian government-backed efforts inside the United States, targeting to the 2024 US presidential election. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed criminal charges against two Russian citizens, sanctioned 10 individuals and entities in the efforts, and seized 32 internet domains.
American diplomats are looking to the coming days and weeks, including the UN General Assembly meeting, to try to build a coalition of countries to meet this challenge.
Formerly known as Russia Today, RT operates television and online platforms around the world that promote the Kremlin’s agenda. The US Department of Justice forced RT America to register as a foreign agent in 2017 after US intelligence officials concluded that the outlet contributed to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 election.
The United States believes RT propaganda and disinformation has been key to generating pro-Russian reactions to the war in Ukraine globally, the senior administration official said.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, RT was banned in the European Union, and in the United States the channel is not broadcast publicly. But in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, RT broadcasts have been expanding.
The US-led effort to target Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment maker, which began during the Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden, is seen as a model for how US officials are currently looking to target RT at global level. The United States was able to pressure many countries not to use the Chinese company’s equipment after a global effort to argue that the company was an instrument of the Chinese government.
