RT caves to Justice Department threats, registers as a 'foreign agent'

Russian Times.
(Image credit: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images)

Russia's state-funded English-language news agency RT self-reported its registration as a "foreign agent" in the United States on Monday. "Between legal action and registration [as a foreign agent], we have chosen the latter," tweeted RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, citing a Nov. 13 deadline imposed by the Justice Department.

In October, Twitter announced its decision to immediately end advertising from accounts owned by the Russian state-sponsored news agency Sputnik, in addition to RT. "This decision was based on the retrospective work we've been doing around the 2016 U.S. election and the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that both RT and Sputnik attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government," Twitter wrote in its statement.

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.