Russia has said it will take retaliatory measures after the U.S. announced sanctions against its state-funded media network, RT, threatening that they will make “everyone shudder.” (Al Jazeera)

Russia’s foreign ministry said the U.S. moves were part of a plan to purge any dissenting voices from the global media landscape and to stoke fears among U.S. voters about Russia as a mythical external enemy. “There will be a response,” Maria Zakharova, foreign ministry spokeswoman, said. (Reuters)

Dimitri Simes, former president of the Center for the National Interest, who was repeatedly named in the Mueller report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, was charged with working for a sanctioned Russian television station and laundering funds. (Axios)

Simes, 76, is accused of participating in a “scheme to violate U.S. sanctions for the benefit of sanctioned Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia and to launder funds obtained from that scheme.” (The Daily Beast)

Even by the standards of right-wing social media, last year’s rollout for Tenet Media was strange. Videos of the event featured influencers such as Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin talking portentously about freedom and censorship while bathed in a nightclub-style purple light. (WaPo)

Tenet has found itself at the center of a major U.S. government action to crack down on Russian interference in the 2024 election. Prosecutors alleged that two employees of Russia-backed media network RT funneled almost $10 million to six commentators through a company that appears to be Tenet. (NBC News)