All news

Radio Liberty, CNN may get bitten by Russia's foreign agents law

The bill may also be applicable to Voice of America, CNN and Deutsche Welle, according to a senior Russian lawmaker

MOSCOW, November 13. /TASS/. Radio Liberty, CNN and Deutsche Welle may fall under the bill the Russian State Duma lower parliament house is drafting to respond to the United States’ actions against Russia’s RT television channel, a senior Russian lawmaker said on Monday.

"Radio Liberty falls under the bill," Andrei Isayev, a deputy head of the United Russia faction, told journalists. In his words, the bill may also be applicable to Voice of America, CNN and Deutsche Welle.

"There are a number of other structures operating in Russia that might fall under this law," he said.

In his words, it will be the job for "authorized agencies of the executive branch, not the State Duma" to decide which media outlets are to be added to the list.

Duma vice speaker, Pyotr Tolstoy, said earlier the bill on mass media outlets acting as foreign agents may be passed by the State Duma on November 15.

On November 10, Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin tasked the lower houses’ relevant committees to elaborate a tit-for-tat legislative response to the US Justice Department’s obliging the Russian RT television channel to register itself as foreign agent. He said the bill could be considered in first reading on November 15 and passed into law before November 17.