Kremlin: Any Violations Against Russian Journalists Abroad Will Receive Response

The Kremlin has commented on a draft bill on including several foreign media outlets operating in Russia in the Foreign Agents list as a response to the US Justice Department demand on RT America's registration under FARA. "Any infringement on the freedom of Russian media abroad does not remain and shall not remain without a very tough response both from public opinion and through our legislature as well as the executive branch, which can provide a timely mirror response," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has stated. Peskov has been asked to comment on the amendments to a Russian law, according to which foreign media outlets that are funded from abroad could be recognized as Foreign Agents. "The practice of applying this law is not yet available, so it's absolutely wrong to draw conclusions now," Peskov added. RT's Registration Under FARA Peskov's statement comes after Moscow has vowed to respond to the demand issued by US Department of Justice on RT America's registration under FARA by November 13, with the Russian Foreign Ministry calling the move an "unfriendly step." On Monday, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan announced that RT America had registered as a foreign agent in the United States to comply with the demand, explaining that the broadcaster was choosing between a criminal case and registration. While Washington's demand wasn't applied to many other foreign state-funded media outlets, including BBC, the Russian Embassy in the US has stated that such actions against the broadcaster are aimed at eliminating a source of alternative information. Pressure on RT in US RT, as well as Sputnik, has come under increased pressure in the US in the wake of the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election, a claim repeatedly denied by the Kremlin as "groundless and absurd." In the course of recent weeks, Twitter decided to block ads from all accounts owned by RT and Sputnik, based on its own investigation into the 2016 US election, prompting Moscow to call the move "another aggressive step" toward Russian media outlets in the US. While the Sputnik press service has stated the news agency had never used paid promotions on Twitter, RT has revealed how Twitter itself has been pushing it to spend big on its ads during the US election campaign, a proposal eventually turned down by the media outlet. The US Senate held a hearing with the US tech giants, during which the CEOs of Google and Twitter have testified that they found no violations by RT's ads on their platforms. Read more: https://sputniknews.com/russia/201711151059113303-kremlin-foreign-agent-media/