Moscow will impose restrictions on American media outlets in response to new U.S. sanctions on the state-funded RT news network, the Kremlin said Friday.
The United States indicted two RT employees and sanctioned its top editors on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to influence the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
“A like response is not possible. There is no state news agency in the U.S., and there is no state TV channel in the U.S.,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
“But there will certainly be measures here that will restrict their media disseminating their information,” he said without specifying what restrictions the Russian authorities planned to place on U.S. media outlets.
Most Western media outlets downsized or pulled their staff out of Russia after Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which coincided with the passing of draconian censorship laws about reporting on the war.
The 10 individuals and two entities sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday included RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and her deputy Elizaveta Brodskaia.
U.S. officials have long warned of efforts by foreign powers to meddle in the upcoming presidential race, accusing Moscow of seeking to influence elections going back to the 2016 stand-off between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
