(RepublicanInformer.com)- The United States federal government is continuing to place increasingly severe sanctions on Russia, ranging from economic sanctions on Russian banks and financial institutions and now to Russian government-run media outlets. The United States Treasury Department has sanctioned 11 Russian state-run media outlets and the officials who run them for sharing misinformation – real misinformation, for once – about the invasion of Ukraine.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Treasury Department said that Russian state-owned news outlets are portraying Ukraine as the aggressor – which is obviously completely untrue. The outlets have also been banned from using words like “invasion” when referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and instead refer to it as a “special military operation” – the language preferred by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
All organizations and individuals sanctioned by the Treasury Department will have all U.S. assets frozen.
It’s an escalation of sanctions, which were first placed on Russian banks. These Russian media websites can, however, still be accessed in the United States. Users may notice that the sites take significantly longer to load, however, as Russian technicians have been forced to implement safeguards that protect their websites from denial of service (DDOS) attacks.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control has sanctions Geopolitica, Oriental Review, New Eastern Outlook, United World International, SouthFront, InfoRos, Journal Kameron, Rhythm of Eurasia, Odna Rodyna, and the Strategic Culture Foundation. High-level employees at the organizations have also been sanctioned, including workers at News Front, a propaganda outlet based in Crimea and which has links to the Russian intelligence agency, Federal Security Service.
As a result of increasingly strict sanctions from the West, Russia Today (RT) has also announced that it will lay off most of its staff and cease its operation.
