US Urges India to Outlaw RT

• US officials are pushing for India to ban Russian state media outlet RT, citing it as “Russian disinformation.”
• The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been silent on the issue, but officials claim the sanctions are irrelevant to India.
• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced further sanctions against RT, claiming it was the “de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.”
• RT and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs deny the charge.
• The US launched a “joint diplomatic campaign” with the UK and Canada to address the threat posed by RT and other Russian disinformation machinery.
• Former Ambassador to Russia and France Kanwal Sibal criticized the US’s actions as damaging America’s values and viewed it as “double standards” by the Global South.
• The move follows the general ban by the U.S. and Europe on Russian broadcasters after the Russia-Ukraine war began in February 2022.