RT, Sputnik and Russia’s New Theory of War

One morning in January 2016, Martin Steltner showed up at his office in the state courthouse building in western Berlin. Steltner, who has served for more than a dozen years as the spokesman for the Berlin state prosecutor, resembles a detective out of classic crime fiction: crisp suit, wavy gray hair and a gallows humor that comes with having seen it all. There was the 2009 case of the therapist who mistakenly killed two patients in an Ecstasy-infused session gone wrong. The Great Poker Heist of 2010, in which masked men stormed a celebrity-studded poker tournament with machetes and made off with a quarter-million dollars. The 2012 episode involving the Canadian porn star who killed and ate his boyfriend and then sent the leftovers home in the mail. Steltner embraced the oddball aspect of his job; he kept a picture of Elvis Presley on the wall of his office.

Russia threatens US media with retaliatory restrictions

American media outlets could soon see new operational barriers in Russia as punishment for U.S. scrutiny over Russian state-funded outlet RT, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry told Russian broadcaster NTV on Sunday.

The U.S.’s oversight and pressure on RT gives Russia the right to retaliate in kind, Maria Zakharova insisted, citing a Russian law dating back to 1991, according to Reuters.

Russia’s RT Network: Is It More BBC or K.G.B.?

LONDON — The London newsroom and studios of RT, the television channel and website formerly known as Russia Today, are ultramodern and spacious, with spectacular views from the 16th floor overlooking the Thames and the London Eye. And, its London bureau chief, Nikolay A. Bogachikhin, jokes, “We overlook MI5 and we’re near MI6,” Britain’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies.

Mr. Bogachikhin was poking fun at the charge from Western governments, American and European, that RT is an agent of Kremlin policy and a tool directly used by President Vladimir V. Putin to undermine Western democracies — meddling in the recent American presidential election and, European security officials say, trying to do the same in the Netherlands, France and Germany, all of which vote later this year.

Kremlin-backed media turns on Trump

Kremlin-controlled news outlets used to root for Donald Trump’s election. Now they’re reveling in the chaos and division of his early presidency.

“Sessions Scandal: ‘U.S Headed to Constitutional Crisis,’” reads a March 3 headline on the website of the Kremlin-funded English-language network RT.

“Immigrants See American Dream Fade in Wake of Surge in Hate Crimes,” Sputnik News, another English language outlet bankrolled by the Kremlin, reported the same day.

Want To See Fake News? Check Out 'Russia Today'

Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly has put the menace of "fake news" on notice.

Her plans to take on this challenge across social media and internet platforms is a welcome relief, as the face of digital technology, the normal exchange of information, and the entirety of public discourse has been rapidly descending into a disorienting mess.