US trying to ‘cleanse’ media space of ‘inconvenient truth’ – Moscow

New sanctions confirm Washington’s Russophobic stance, Ambassador Anatoly Antonov has said

The US is trying to hide the “inconvenient truth” by targeting Russian media with sanctions, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Thursday. The measures are further proof of the current US administration’s “Russophobia,” the diplomat claimed.

US officials announced a renewed effort on Thursday to target Russian media, including RT, with yet more sanctions for what they claim are “malign” government-sponsored attempts to manipulate American public opinion ahead of the presidential election in November.

The new measures include charges against two Russians identified as RT employees for allegedly conspiring to commit money laundering, as well as the blacklisting of ten people and two entities with the subsequent freezing of their property and assets in the US. A new visa restriction policy has also been imposed targeting people whom Washington alleges have acted on behalf of the Russian government.

“The [US] administration has made another attack against Russia. Its Russophobic policy has been confirmed, and is unlikely to change in the future,” Antonov said at a press-briefing.

“In essence, [US] officials are giving additional impetus to the aggressive phase of the witch hunt against dissent,” he added.

READ MORE: US Justice Department reveals legal action against RT

The diplomat argued that the latest sanctions are an attempt by the US Democrats “to shift some of the blame for their mistakes during the electoral struggle to Russia.”

“To justify their actions, they are using lies, trying to discredit Russian media, which provide a small sip of the truth on American politics,” Antonov stated.

Their goal is clear – to cleanse the information space of inconvenient truth. To thicken the atmosphere of Russophobia, blaming one’s own failures on external factors.

RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, who was among those blacklisted, earlier mocked Washington for once again claiming that the outlet was attempting to interfere in the US elections. In a post on Telegram, she stated that the US apparently doesn’t have “any other strategies except to scaremonger about the almighty RT.”

READ MORE: US becoming ‘neoliberal dictatorship’ – Moscow

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the measures pointed to the “irreversible degradation” of democratic values in the US and its “transformation into a totalitarian neoliberal dictatorship.”