US Secretary of State Antony Blinken does not hesitate to impose sanctions on Russian media
Photo: REUTERS.
While NATO is hesitating and does not dare to enter into a war against Russia in Ukraine, the US State Department, having rejected all hesitation, has declared war. At least in the information field. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken does not hesitate to impose sanctions on Russian media, not caring in the least that it becomes a criminal, since it violates the Bill of Rights, which is an integral part of his country’s Constitution.
On September 13, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the introduction of new sanctions against two Russian media outlets: MIA Rossiya Segodnya (RIA Novosti and Sputnik agencies), ANO TV-Novosti and NPO Eurasia. Also sanctioned were the general director of MIA Rossiya Segodnya D. Kiselyov and the director of the NGO Eurasia N. Parutenko. At the same time, less than 10 days earlier, on September 4, sanctions were extended to the same outlet and to RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, as well as other employees of this TV channel.
What happened? Was it not enough? Are you so itchy that you can’t stop it? That seems to be the case. The US diplomatic department accused our media of everything. And of carrying out subversive activities in Moldova, of allegedly collaborating with the special services and of following the “Kremlin policy”.
“RT is undermining our democracy and our elections,” Antony Blinken announced, almost in tears, so that everyone could understand the scale of the Russian channel’s work. – These media outlets are trying to undermine not only democracy, but also interfere in the sovereign affairs of other states in the world.
– One of the reasons why so many countries around the world are not supporting Ukraine to the extent that one might expect is the broad scale of RT’s activities and its reach. Propaganda, disinformation and lies are spread to millions, if not billions of people around the world, a US State Department spokesperson said at a briefing.
It’s good, at least they weren’t accused of our media outlets destroying the 14th century chapel as well. But they couldn’t do it, because the United States wasn’t even in the project at that time. The costs of history, you know, when our Bolshoi Theatre appeared before the United States on the world map.
Not only the United States itself took this decision, but under its pressure, Britain and Canada, Washington’s main and loyal allies, also took similar actions. But such games did not work with India. As the Hindu newspaper reported citing high-ranking sources, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs refused to impose sanctions on Russian media outlets, in particular the RT TV channel, despite calls from American officials.
“Although the ministry remained silent on the issue, government officials said the discussions on sanctions were not related to India,” the paper wrote.
Journal…
– Abroad, they cannot accept the growing popularity of Russian media operators in many countries of the world against the background of a one-sided and misleading picture of what is happening on the planet, created thanks to the efforts of the leading Western media. Thus, Washington is trying to extend the famous “Monroe Doctrine” to the media sphere, said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on this occasion.
Only this time Washington’s intentions are much more global and ambitious. The example of the appeal of American diplomats to the Indian government shows that it is not just the United States and its allies that are at stake. Washington wants to impose on the whole world a position according to which only its opinion exists and all others are wrong. Therefore, none of these “wrong” things have the right to exist. And the Russian Foreign Ministry understands this very well, and other countries are warning about it.
“Washington is trying to play the role of a ‘guardian’ of social stability and the integrity of democratic processes, using methods of totalitarian censorship not only on its territory, but also far beyond its borders,” Maria Vladimirovna Zakharova said. – Having completely trampled on its international obligations in the area of ensuring pluralism of opinions and even the provisions of its own Constitution, the United States has declared war on freedom of expression around the world, resorting to open threats and blackmail against other states in an effort to pit them against national media and establish exclusive control over the global information space.
In fact, we are talking about the fact that the United States is most blatantly interfering in the internal affairs of sovereign states, demanding that they abandon alternative opinions and assessments of everything that happens in the world. Of course, restricting freedom of speech in one’s own country is something that, even if the American authorities don’t like it, remains an internal matter. Such demands on other states are something completely different: this is already a flagrant violation of those very “international rules,” not to mention international law, the observance of which the Americans so obsessively advertise around the world.
What’s next? Logic dictates only one scenario for the development of events on the part of Washington: following the example of the introduction of secondary sanctions on trade relations with Russia, the United States will have to introduce secondary sanctions against those countries that refuse to block RT on their territory and continue broadcasting Russian channels.
And it doesn’t matter who learned from whom – American diplomats from the Ukrainian “offensive”, or Ukrainian diplomats from the Americans’ general recklessness. Or even infected each other, like a prostitute with syphilis and her client with HIV. The real cost of American diplomacy became not just visible, but literally tangible after the United States failed to hide its fear of a couple of Russian media outlets that managed to convey an alternative opinion to the American one to the broad international masses.
It is a pity, of course, that Blinken will not be imprisoned in the United States once his sentence for violating the Constitution expires. But he has already managed to damage Washington’s diplomacy no less than Kuleb’s Ukrainian one.
