SECRETARY BLINKEN: Well, good afternoon, everyone. And for those of you who were traveling, welcome home.
Accurate information is vital to the health of any democracy. It helps citizens understand the issues and effects – and events that are affecting their lives. It empowers them to engage meaningfully in their communities, their country, the world. When state or non-state actors spread disinformation, material deliberately meant to deceive or divide our public, they attack the very foundations of our free and open society.
In March, I laid out the comprehensive steps the administration is taking to address this threat to our national security and to our national fabric.
First, we’re building a more resilient global information system, where objective facts are elevated and deceptive messages gain less traction. We’re doing that by promoting policies and programs that protect a free, vibrant, and independent press and that foster greater civic and media literacy so that people can better distinguish fact from fiction.
Second, we’re working to expose, to disrupt, to deter disinformation. Through the State Department Global Engagement Center, we’re coordinating government-wide and with other countries to identify, to analyze, to undercover attempts by governments and non-state actors to manipulate information.
Third, we’re taking steps to hold accountable those who weaponize disinformation to undermine our democracy. That’s what we did just last week when the State Department, the Justice Department, the Treasury Department, the FBI took a series of coordinated actions to counter Russian influence and interference in our elections and in our democracy.
In addition to imposing sanctions, visa restrictions, and other measures, the State Department also designated the Russian state-funded and directed media company Rossiya Segodnya and five of its subsidiaries, including RT, under the Foreign Missions Act. As a result, these actors are now required to notify the State Department of all personnel working in the United States as well as their property.
We took these steps based on our conclusion that Rossiya Segodnya and these five subsidiaries are no longer merely firehoses of Russian Government propaganda and disinformation; they are engaged in covert influence activities aimed at undermining American elections and democracies, functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.
Today, we’re announcing that these Kremlin-backed media outlets are not only playing this covert influence role to undermine democracy in the United States, but also to meddle in the sovereign affairs of countries around the world. Thanks to new information – much of which originates from RT employees – we know that RT possess cyber capabilities and engaged in covert information and influence operations and military procurement. As part of RT’s expanded capabilities, the Russian Government embedded within RT a unit with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence. RT’s leadership had direct, witting knowledge of this enterprise.
Russian Government actors incorporated the cyber capabilities of this unit within RT in the spring of 2023, which is focused primarily on covert influence operations around the world. Under the cover of RT, information produced through this unit flows to Russian intelligence services, Russian media outlets, Russian mercenary groups, and other state and proxy arms of the Russian Government. One of its projects is a large, online crowdfunding program in Russia, operating within RT and through social media channels, to provide support and military equipment – supplies, weaponry – to Russian military units in Ukraine. This includes sniper rifles, suppressors, body armor, night vision equipment, drones, radio equipment, personal weapon sites, diesel generators.
While the crowdfunding campaign is out in the open, what’s hidden is that this program is administered by the leaders of RT. Last week, our government revealed how RT launders information operations through unwitting Americans to covertly disseminate Kremlin-produced content and messaging to the American public. Today, we’re exposing how Russia deploys similar tactics around the world.
In Germany, for example, RT covertly runs the Berlin-based English-language platform Red, a successor to the now defunct RT-linked platform Redfish. RT also secretly runs the online platform African Stream across a wide range of social media platforms. Now, according to the outlet’s website, “African Stream is” – and I quote – “a pan-African digital media organisation based exclusively on social-media platforms, focused on giving a voice to all Africans both at home and abroad.” In reality, the only voice it gives is to Kremlin propagandists.
RT’s expanded covert capabilities allow it to deepen coordination with traditional Russian intelligence services as they work to manipulate the outcome of democratic elections in the United States but also around the world. For years, RT and its employees have coordinated directly with the Kremlin to support Russian Government efforts to influence Moldova’s elections, including the October 2024 presidential election. RT’s leadership has leveraged Russian state-funded and directed media platforms to attempt to foment unrest in Moldova, likely with the aim of causing protests to turn violent. We believe RT will almost certainly leverage its expanded covert capabilities to coordinate with Russian intelligence services to try to manipulate the outcome of Moldova’s upcoming election.
As a result of these findings, today we’re imposing sanctions on three entities and two individuals for Russia’s covert global influence operations, including interference in Moldova’s democracy and its upcoming elections.
The actions we’re exposing today and the actions we exposed last week do not incorporate the full scope of Russia’s efforts to undermine democracies – far from it. Russian weaponization of disinformation to subvert and polarize free and open societies extends to every part of the world. In response, today the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada are launching a joint diplomatic campaign to rally allies and partners around the world to join us in addressing the threat posed by RT and other machinery of Russian disinformation and covert influence. Under the – using, excuse me, the internet – intelligence diplomacy has become a hallmark of our administration. I’ve instructed U.S. diplomats around the world to share the evidence that we’ve gathered on RT’s expanded capabilities and the ways it’s being used to target individual countries and the information ecosystem that we share.
Now, each government, of course, is going to decide how it responds to this threat. But we urge every ally, every partner to start by treating RT’s activities as they do other intelligence activities by Russia within their borders.
Now, let me be very clear. The United States respects and champions freedom of expression, even when it comes to media outlets that wittingly spread government propaganda, and we’ll continue to lead the world in defending and promoting media freedom. But we will not stand by as RT and other actors carry out covert activities in support of Russia’s nefarious activities, and we’ll continue to respond forcefully to Moscow’s playbook of aggression and subversion, one that includes invading sovereign nations, fomenting coups, weaponizing corruption, carrying out assassinations, meddling in elections, and unjustly detaining foreign nationals.
The great U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, as is well-known, sunlight is the best disinfectant. RT wants its new covert intelligence capabilities, like its longstanding propaganda and disinformation efforts, to remain hidden. Our most powerful antidote to Russia’s lies is the truth. It’s shining a bright light on what the Kremlin is trying to do under the cover of darkness. Taking action together with our allies and partners to address this threat to our democracies is an effective way of pushing back. And today we’re taking an important step in that direction.
One final related note on a more uplifting subject. A little bit earlier today I had the opportunity to sit down with Evan Gershkovich. First time I’ve had a chance to see him since he was freed. We were joined by one of his colleagues from The Wall Street Journal, which was such a tenacious champion, along with his family, in pressing for Evan’s release. I know a number of you know Evan. Anyone who knows him can attest to this: He’s incredibly warm, he’s got a great sense of humor, but maybe the most striking part of spending time with Evan is simply how wonderful it feels to see him free, home, where he belongs. I also keep returning to the fact that Evan, on the form that Russia forced him to fill out before he was released, asked for an interview with Vladimir Putin. Always on the job.
We make a lot of great things in this country, but one of the greatest things we make is our journalists. Their professionalism – your professionalism – the unshakable commitment to seeking the truth, is a service not only to our people and our democracy, it’s a service to the entire world.
Evan’s freedom is also a reminder of all Americans who are still held hostage or wrongfully detained. And as I said when we first secured the release of Evan, of Paul, of Alsu and others, for them and for their families of those who remain detained, there are tough days when they will question if they ever get their freedom back. My pledge to them is the same one that I made to Evan and to the dozens of other Americans whose release we’ve secured these last few years. We’ve not forgotten you; we will not forget you; and we will not rest until we get you home where you belong.
Thanks very much.
