The Kremlin-run RT news network will go off the air in the U.S. capital because of its “foreign agent” status in the country, its chief editor has claimed.
RT’s American branch was ordered to register as a “foreign agent” in the U.S. last fall following allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The channel will be taken off air after two Virginia-based digital stations that carry RT alongside other international broadcasters disappear from screens this Sunday, a year after they were auctioned off by their parent organization.
“We were thrown out of the broadcast network in Washington. This is dedicated to everyone who ardently and sincerely reassured us that the foreign agent label will in no way affect RT’s work in the States,” RT Russia cited its editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan as saying Thursday.
Simonyan tweeted on Thursday that the network was going off air because of its "foreign agent status.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday that lawyers were closely studying the grounds for the decision, but said that at first glance it looked illegal and discriminatory.
Simonyan later added that RT would continue broadcasts in other U.S. cities on platforms that continue carrying the channel.
Reuters contributed reporting to this article.
