russian tv online

[salehjm]

Russian TV network registers as a foreign agent in the U.S. The chief editor of the Russian state-funded TV channel RT says the company has met the U.S. demand to register as a foreign agent. Margarita Simonyan said Monday on RT’s Russian-language website that ’between a criminal case and the registration we have chosen the latter,’ adding on a sarcastic note that ’we congratulate the American freedom of speech and those who still believe in it on that.’ Simonyan said that failure to fulfill the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to register by Monday could have led to the arrest of RT’s American director and the freezing of its accounts. Russian lawmakers are drafting retaliatory measures. In a statement by the DOJ on Monday, Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana Boente said, ’Americans have a right to know who is acting in the United States to influence the U.S. government or public on behalf of foreign principals.’ ’The Department of Justice is committed to enforcing FARA and expects compliance with the law by all entities engaged in specified activities on behalf of any foreign principal, regardless of its nationality,’ Boente added. 82787