Russia promises retaliation against US regarding charges against RT media network

The Russian Federation has vowed retaliation against the United States in response to the nation’s actions against media executives with Russia Today, the country’s state-controlled media network funded by the Russian government.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed a federal indictment against Elena Afanasyeva and Kostiantyn Kalashnikov for their alleged involvement in a nefarious scheme in which both acted as Russian operatives and paid an influencer-based media company in the U.S. millions of dollars to promote talking points and political issues meant to influence public opinion and ultimately how people voted in the election .

“The Justice Department has charged two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, in a $10 million scheme to create and distribute content to U.S. audiences with hidden Russian government messaging,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said . “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”

Russian government officials denied any wrongdoing and claimed that the indictment was essentially performative politics to stoke fears in the country’s population about Russia trying to sabotage and influence the upcoming presidential election. It also claimed that such actions were meant to suppress dissenting viewpoints that run counter to contemporary political ideological beliefs, according to BBC.

“When the authorities resort to such primitive ways of influencing their voters, this is the decline of ‘liberal democracies,’” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry . “There will be a response.”

“We warn that attempts to expel Russian journalists from the territory of the United States, create unacceptable conditions for their work or any other forms of obstruction of their activities, including with the use of visa tools, will become the basis for taking symmetrical and/or asymmetric retaliatory measures against the American media,” Zakharova added.

RT also denied any wrongdoing and mocked the accusations in the indictment.

“Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and RT’s interference in the U.S. elections,” the state-controlled media network said to Reuters .