The diplomat recalled that Moscow never interfered in the internal affairs of the United States and has no intention of doing so, and condemned the restrictive measures imposed on the Rossiya Segodnya media group.

“We categorically reject the false accusations against Russian information structures and demand the annulment of the administrative restrictions imposed on the work of our journalists in the United States,” Antonov said.

The United States Treasury Department yesterday imposed sanctions on the editor-in-chief of the RT television channel, Margarita Simonián; the deputy editors-in-chief Anton Anisimov and Elizaveta Brodskaya; the deputy head of information dissemination of RT, Andrei Kiashko; the head of the digital media projects department, Konstantín Kalashnikov, and the employee of the digital media projects department Elena Afanasieva.

The US State Department announced that it is tightening its rules with respect to the media group Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries RIA Novosti, RT, TV Novosti, Ruptly and Sputnik, defining their status as “foreign missions”, which must now notify the US authorities on all employees working in the United States, as well as notifying of all properties they own in the country.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that RT employees Kalashnikov and Afanasieva are charged with conspiracy for violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act and money laundering.

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