CHELYABINSK, November 9. /TASS/. Demands of the US Department of Justice that Russia’s RT television channel be registered as a foreign agent by November 13 is a manifestation of the anti-Russian hysteria, Russian Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikoforov said on Thursday.
"I think it is yet another manifestation of the general anti-Russian hysteria rather than of a constructive legal dialogue," he told journalists.
When asked about Russia’s possible response, he noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin had said in similar situations that a response was to be swift and tit-for-tat.
According to Nikoforov, the ministry is yet to study the document from the US Department of Justice as it is wrong to make conclusions on the basis of news headlines. "It is necessary to see the document to understand what they mean," he said.
Earlier, the US Department of Justice demanded that the US branch of the Russian television broadcaster RT should have itself registered as a foreign agent before November 13. Otherwise the bank accounts of the RT’s branch in the United States may be frozen and its chief put under arrest.
Earlier on Thursday, RT Managing Director Alexey Nikolov said at a meeting of the Provisional Commission of Russia’s Federation Council (upper house of parliament) on Information Policy and Media Interaction that RT had not registered as a foreign agent in the US.
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan said later that RT would have to register itself as a foreign agent as otherwise it would have no possibility to operate in the United States.