WASHINGTON, September 5. /TASS/. Democrats in the US administration want to put some of the blame on election blunders on Russia upfront by imposing sanctions against the Russian media, Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov said.
Antonov commented on the imposition of restrictions on the Rossiya Segodnya media group for alleged attempts to influence the American elections. "It feels like the Democrats want to transfer some of the blame for their failures in the electoral struggle to Russia. In order to justify their actions, one pours lies, strives to defame the Russian media that give a small 'breath' of truth about the real American policy," the diplomat's commentary on the Russian Embassy's Telegram channel reads. "The administration has fired another shot across Russia’s bow. It is the Russophobic policy, unlikely to be changed in the future," the ambassador emphasized.
Antonov added that US officials moved into the aggressive phase of the "witch hunts" with the renewed vigor. Examples of such he cited as the Federal Bureau of Investigation raids on the homes of US political analysts Dimitri Simes and Scott Ritter, as well as Russians working in the United States.
The ambassador noted that the US administration contradicts itself. "We hear rebukes about interference in electoral processes and assertions that this action has nothing to do with the upcoming presidential election at the same time," he pointed out.
On Wednesday, the US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the Russian broadcaster RT, and her deputies - Anton Anisimov and Elizaveta Brodskaya. Moreover, Deputy Director of the RT Information Broadcasting Andrey Kiyashko, RT’s Digital Media Projects Manager Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, an employee of the Digital Media Projects Department, were blacklisted. In addition, the US Department of State has restricted the Rossiya Segodnya media group and its subsidiaries - RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik, designating them as "foreign missions". The Justice Department has charged Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and money laundering.