US imposes new sanctions on Russian state media over allegations of covert intelligence activities

The US State Department has accused Russia's RT network of having cyber-capabilities and has issued new sanctions against the state media outlet. RT's editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, has responded by saying that RT is an excellent teacher. However, State Department officials warn that RT's covert operations represent only a small fraction of Moscow's efforts to undermine democracies globally. The US, Canada, and Britain have also accused RT of acting as an arm of Russia's intelligence agencies, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating that RT no longer acts as a simple state-owned news organization, but rather actively carries out covert operations in the US.