MOSCOW, April 6. /TASS/. The State Duma’s committee on information policies, information technologies and communication will hold a special meeting in cooperation with experts to look into whether the offices of the Voice of America and Radio Liberty radio stations operating in Russia, as well as the US television network CNN are in compliance with Russian legislation and if their broadcasts were tantamount to meddling in Russian elections, the committee’s chairman Leonid Levin, of the A Just Russia party, said on Thursday.

The first deputy chairman of the committee on CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots, Konstantin Zatulin, of the United Russia party, came out with an idea of such a probe last March. He explained it would be a proportionate response to US Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen’s demand for investigating Russian television broadcaster RT. Shaheen suspects this multi-lingual television channel addressing a world audience is in breach of US legislation on the registration of foreign agents.

"After consultations with legislators and with the brain-father of the proposal, Konstantin Zatulin, the committee made a decision to hold an enlarged meeting to be attended by analysts and experts to decide if the Voice of America, Radio Liberty and the CNN observed Russia’s election legislation or were responsible for influencing election processes in the country," the committee’s press-service quotes Levin as saying.

He said that such questions begin to be put to the US public when Russian mass media, such as the RT television channel and agency Sputnik, are accused of influencing US presidential elections and truying to undermine trust towards the voting procedure.