SOCHI, October 16. /TASS/. Russia will have to take retaliatory measures against US television channels operating on its soil if the United States imposes restrictions on the activity of RT television, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a panel discussion entitled Global Politics and its Agenda: How to Protect Peace at the World Festival of Youth and Students on Monday.

"If the US judiciary enforces this absolutely illegitimate decision upon Russia Today, we will have to take proportionate measures against those US channels operating in Russia which are financed first and foremost with US taxpayers’ money," he noted.

"The broadcaster has lawyers and I do hope that they will use their capabilities," Lavrov added.

He believes that the demands on RT to register itself as a foreign agent are not accidental. This demonstrates that the Russian channel is a successful counterbalance to CNN’s propaganda.

Lavrov warned that CNN systematically demonstrated its bias and readiness to sacrifice professionalism to time-serving political considerations and found itself at the receiving end of its own policies.

Editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan earlier said the United States had demanded RT declare itself as a foreign agent by October 17. Otherwise serious measures, including arrests, might be used against the broadcaster’s employees.