The FBI launched an investigation against Sputnik, and RT ordered to register as a foreign agent

Photo: Sputnik International

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in early September interrogated the former correspondent of the Russian news agency Sputnik in the White House, American Andrew Feinberg.

This comes as part of an investigation into whether the channel is acting as an unofficial propaganda arm of the Kremlin in violation of the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), originally aimed at Nazi propaganda, writes Huffington Post.

The law required persons representing the interests of a foreign government in the United States “in a political or quasi-political capacity” to provide to American authorities information about their connections with that government and an account of their activities and finances. Before 1942, foreign agents were required to register with the State Department, and after that with the Department of Justice.

Feinberg left Sputnik in May 2017 and allegedly took a flash drive from work with a large number of emails and internal agency documents that could potentially help prosecutors if they begin preparing a case against Sputnik for participating in a propaganda campaign in the run-up to last year's shootings. elections in the USA.

However, intelligence agencies and employees of special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating the alleged conspiracy of Donald Trump’s campaign with the Kremlin, refuse to answer journalists’ questions about Sputnik.

Therefore, it is difficult to say whether Faynberg was interrogated as part of an investigation by Muller or the FBI suspects the Russian agency only of violating FARA.

If the US Department of Justice concludes that Sputnik is subject to this law, its leaders in the US could face criminal prosecution and fines, and the agency's publications would have to contain a warning that this is propaganda and not ordinary journalistic material.

However, since 1966, when a number of changes were made to FARA, there has not been a single case of successful prosecution of its violators. But the Department of Justice has in stock and civil claims against the Russian-language media in the United States.

Recently, members of Congress have repeatedly demanded that the Department deal with violators of the law on registration of foreign agents, in particular the publications Sputnik and RT.

A January report by US intelligence agencies characterized both as "state propaganda machines serving as platforms for the Kremlin to indoctrinate Russian and international audiences."

As part of the FARA 12 September tocompany serving channel RT America — branch of the media group Russia Today — received a letter from the US Department of Justice demanding that I register as a foreign agent.

This is reported on Online media groups.

Channel Editor RT Margarita Simonyan called the letter “a war between the American establishment and our journalists,” writes RT.

“Dedicated to all the beautiful souls who still believed in freedom of speech. She was killed by those who invented her,” Simonyan said.

Registration as a foreign agent does not mean the termination of broadcasting. Russia Today in USA. After registration, the scheme for filing financial statements of the branch will change, and the programs produced by it will have to be labeled as propaganda of a foreign government.

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