Biden administration unveils new evidence of RT’s key role in Russian intelligence operations globally

By Kylie Atwood, Sean Lyngaas and Michael Conte, CNN

(CNN) — The Biden administration on Friday announced a major effort to blunt the global influence of RT and expose what it says is the Russian state media network’s key role in the Kremlin’s global intelligence and influence operations.

The State Department revealed declassified US intelligence findings that suggest RT is fully integrated into Russia’s intelligence operations around the world and announced it is launching a diplomatic campaign to provide countries with information about the risks associated with RT activities.

“Thanks to new information, much of which originates from RT employees, we know that RT possessed cyber capabilities and engaged in covert information and influence operations and military procurement,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.

A key finding from the new US intelligence is that, for more than a year, the Russian government quietly embedded an intelligence-gathering unit within RT focused on influence operations globally. That activity has been part of US officials described as a big expansion of RT’s role as an arm and mouthpiece of the Kremlin abroad. The activity goes beyond propaganda and covert influence operations to even include military procurement, according to US officials.

“Under the cover of RT, information produced through this unit flows to Russian intelligence services, Russian media outlets, Russian mercenary groups, and other state and proxy arms of the Russian government,” Blinken said.

In addition to its covert influence operations, the leaders of RT also administered an online crowdfunding effort to supply military equipment to Russian soldiers in Ukraine, Blinken alleged.

The crowdfunding effort supplied “sniper rifles, suppressors, body armor, night vision equipment, drones, radio equipment, personal weapon sights, diesel generators” to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, according to Blinken.

The goal of the US announcement — and private discussions with allied diplomats — is to make sure that countries know that RT and Russian intelligence agencies are working together to sow division and harm democratic processes, while simultaneously making it much more difficult for RT to operate globally, a senior administration official said.

CNN first reported on the pending State Department announcement.

Asked for comment by CNN, RT responded with a mocking email that read in part: “We’ve been broadcasting straight out of the KGB headquarters all this time.”

CNN has requested comment from the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.

Friday’s news is part of a full-fledged US government effort to curb RT’s global clout. It comes just a week after federal prosecutors announced criminal charges against two RT employees for covertly funneling nearly $10 million into a US company to create and amplify content that aligned with Russian interests. The covert influence campaign was aimed at the American public ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, US officials said.

US diplomats are looking to the coming days and weeks – including the UN General Assembly gathering – to build a coalition of countries willing to combat the threat that US officials see from RT.

Formerly known as Russia Today, RT runs television and online platforms around the world that advance 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 media outlet contributed to Russian efforts to meddle in the 2016 election.

The US believes RT propaganda and disinformation has been key to generating pro-Russia reactions to the Ukraine war globally, a senior administration official told CNN.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, RT was banned in the European Union, and in the US the channel is not publicly broadcast. But in Latin American and Sub-Saharan Africa RT broadcasts have been expanding.

RT’s broadcasts have had a “deleterious effect on the views of the rest of the world about a war [in Ukraine] that should be an open-and-shut case,” James Rubin, the coordinator for the department’s Global Engagement Center, told reporters after Blinken’s remarks.

RT’s embrace of covert activities is a response to the restrictions on the outlet’s presence in some Western countries, according to US officials. A separate scheme hatched by RT, US prosecutors said in July, involved running a network of over 1,000 social media accounts that posed as US residents to spread anti-Ukraine propaganda. The Kremlin financed the scheme and an officer of Russia’s FSB intelligence service helped run the operation, the Justice Department claimed.

It was not immediately clear on Friday whether the Russian intelligence unit embedded within RT described by State Department officials was still active. “I can’t answer that,” Rubin said.

The US led effort to target Huawei – a Chinese telecoms equipment maker – which began during the Trump administration and continued under President Joe Biden is viewed as a model for how US officials are currently looking at targeting RT globally. The US was able to push many countries not to use the Chinese company’s equipment after a global effort to making the case that the company was an instrument of the Chinese government.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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