.svg){kind=logo} | |
| Type | State media[1] |
|---|---|
| Country | Russia |
| Availability | Worldwide (exceptEurope) |
| Owner | Rossiya Segodnya (owned and operated by theRussian government) |
Launch date | 29 October 1929; 96 years ago (1929-10-29) (Radio Moscow) 22 December 1993; 31 years ago (1993-12-22) (Voice of Russia) 10 November 2014; 11 years ago (2014-11-10) (Sputnik) |
Official website | sputnikglobe |
| Language | 23 languages (16 current, 7 former) Currently supported:Abkhazian,Arabic,Armenian,Belarusian,Brazilian Portuguese,Chinese,Dari,English,Kyrgyz,Ossetian,Persian,Russian,Serbian,Tajik,Uzbek,Vietnamese Formerly supported:Azerbaijani,Czech,Georgian,Japanese,Polish,Moldovan,Turkish |
Sputnik (Russian pronunciation:[ˈsputnʲɪk]; formerlyVoice of Russia andRIA Novosti, naming derived from Russianспутник, "satellite") is a Russianstate-owned[1]news agency andradio broadcast service. It was established by theRussian government-owned news agencyRossiya Segodnya on 10 November 2014.[2][3] With headquarters inMoscow, Sputnik maintains regional editorial offices inWashington, D.C.,Cairo,Beijing,Paris,Berlin,Madrid,Montevideo andRio de Janeiro.[4] Sputnik describes itself as being focused onglobal politics andeconomics and aims for an international audience.[5]
Sputnik is frequently described by academics and journalists as aRussian propaganda outlet.[15] In 2016, Neil MacFarquhar ofThe New York Times wrote: "The fundamental purpose ofdezinformatsiya, orRussian disinformation, experts said, is to undermine the official version of events—even the very idea that there is a true version of events—and foster a kind of policy paralysis." The Russian government rejects the validity of such assertions.[16] In early 2019,Facebook removed hundreds of pages on its social media platform passing as independent news sites but were actually under the control of Sputnik employees.[17]
Sputnik operatesnews websites, featuring reporting and commentary, in 31 languages includingEnglish,Spanish,Arabic andSerbian.[18] The websites house over 800 hours ofradio broadcasting material each day, and its newswire service runs a24/7 service.[19][20]
Sputnik was banned in theEuropean Union in February 2022 (along withRT) following theRussian invasion of Ukraine.[21] Technology companies and social media services responded to the invasion by removing Sputnik from their platforms, while many versions such as the French, the German and the Greek ones have closed their operation.
RIA Novosti was Russia's internationalnews agency until 9 December 2013 when it became known asRossiya Segodnya.[22][23]Dmitry Kiselev, ananchorman of theRussia-1 channel was appointed to be the first president of the reorganized agency.[24] He soon announced thatMargarita Simonyan was to be editor-in-chief. Simonyan toldThe New York Times in 2017 that she chooseSputnik as the new name "because I thought that's the only Russian word that has a positive connotation, and the whole world knows it."[25]
Sputnik was launched on 10 November 2014 by Rossiya Segodnya, which is itself funded throughRT, owned and operated by theRussian government, and was created via anExecutive Order of the President of Russia on 9 December 2013.[2][3] As well as the RIA Novosti news agency, Sputnik's origins can be traced to 1929 whenRadio Moscow was launched as the official international broadcasting station ofSoviet Union airing across the country,Eastern Europe andCuba until it was replaced byVoice of Russia in 1993 along with the foreign language services of RIA Novosti.[26]RT UK was launched a fortnight earlier. According to its editor-in-chief Dmitry Kiselyov, Sputnik was intended to reach a worldwide audience "tired of aggressive propaganda promoting a unipolar world and who want a different perspective".[18][26] The station claims it "tells the untold".[16] However, PresidentVladimir Putin, while visiting the Moscow base of the RT television network in 2013, said the objective behind both the then forthcoming Sputnik agency and RT was to "break the monopoly of theAnglo-Saxon global information streams."[25]
In April 2017, Sputnik signed a personnel exchange deal with theGlobal Times, aChinese Communist Party tabloid.[27]
Radio Sputnik is the audio service of the Sputnik platform operating in 30 languages "for a total of over 800 hours a day, covering over 130 cities and 34 countries on "FM,DAB/DAB+ (Digital Radio Broadcasting),HD Radio, as well as mobile phones and the Internet."[5] It is available on satellite transponders, including a 24-hour English service audible in North America via the Galaxy-19 satellite. Among the station's presenters areMax Keiser andStacy Herbert who host the weekly talk showDouble Down which concentrates on economics.[28] Another talk show isBy Any Means Necessary which is hosted byEugene Puryear, whileliberal talk radio hostThom Hartmann presentshis own program which issyndicated on Sputnik each day.
Regarding plans for the U.S. broadcast market, the editor-in-chief ofSputnik U.S. said in a June 2017 interview that there were no immediate plans for expansion into markets beyondWashington, D.C.[29] This came on the heels of a late June 2017 announcement[30][29][31] that Radio Sputnik would subleaseReston, Virginia-licensedtranslator stationW288BS (105.5 FM) from Reston Translator, LLC, which transmits from theWIAD tower inBethesda, Maryland, and begin broadcasting Sputnik on that signal; the station's reach includes DC proper and the western suburbs inNorthern Virginia.[32] From November 2017, Radio Sputnik began to be carried on AM in Washington, D.C., onWZHF 1390 AM. The American owners of the stations were required to register as aforeign agent by theUnited States Department of Justice.[33][34]
Sputnik is blocked from owning an American radio station outright due toFederal Communications Commission rules against foreign ownership of broadcast assets, as enacted in theCommunications Act of 1934. Prior to 1 July 2017, Radio Sputnik (initially asits predecessor) had broadcast in the Washington, D.C., area onWTOP-HD2 (103.5-HD2) since June 2013, if not earlier. W288BS translatesUrban One'sWKYS (93.9)'s digitalHD3 signal for analog broadcasting.[29]
Sputnik distributes its programming to American stations viabrokered programming, through agent Arnold Ferolito and his holding companyRM Broadcasting, LLC. Its availability inKansas City, Missouri on stationsKCXL[35] andKOJH from the beginning of January 2020 was contentious, especially in the latter case because the station has a jazz-centeredcommunity radio format and led to a clash on the radio spectrum.[36]
Following the closure of theEcho of Moscow station on 3 March 2022, its frequencies were taken over by Radio Sputnik.[37][38]
On 1 August 2025, Radio Sputnik came to Brazil, in the capital ofRio de Janeiro, through 80.5 in FM.[39]
During the2016 presidential election campaign, according to former US Ambassador to RussiaMichael McFaul writing inThe Washington Post, Sputnik made clear publicly its preference for the then-Republican presidential nomineeDonald Trump over theDemocrat's nomineeHillary Clinton.[40][41]
According to a fake news story circulated by Sputnik,[42] PresidentBarack Obama and Hillary Clinton createdISIS; the website praised Trump, before he was elected in 2016, for making such an assertion.[41][43] The website published an article entitled "Secret File Confirms Trump Claim: Obama, Hillary 'Founded ISIS' to Oust Assad", while tweets from Sputnik used the hashtag #CrookedHillary.[40][41][44] Trump revived another discredited conspiracy theory promoted by Sputnik that Google was suppressing bad news about Clinton.[43][45]
In October 2016, Sputnik improperly cited an article written byKurt Eichenwald forNewsweek misattributing comments to Hillary Clinton confidanteSidney Blumenthal (who quoted Eichenwald in a non-verified email released byWikiLeaks). Sputnik took down the article.[44][46] Aspects of his story as it related to Trump were disputed at the time,[46][47] Sputnik then put up an article reputedly denying its control by the Kremlin and attackingNewsweek and Eichenwald. He wrote that the Trump campaign emailed reporters a link to the Sputnik article and asked them to follow up on the story.[48] The author of the Sputnik article, Bill Moran, successfully suedNewsweek over his assertion that Eichenwald had used bribery and threats.[49]
Forbes reported that Sputnik International reportedfake news and fabricated statements byWhite House Press SecretaryJosh Earnest during the 2016 presidential election. Sputnik falsely reported on 7 December 2016 that Earnest stated sanctions for Russia were on the table related to Syria, falsely quoting Earnest as saying: "There are a number of things that are to be considered, including some of the financial sanctions that the United States can administer in coordination with our allies. I would definitely not rule that out."Forbes analyzed Earnest's White House press briefing from that week, and found the word "sanctions" was never used by the Press Secretary. Russia was discussed in eight instances during the press conference, but never about sanctions. The press conference focused solely on Russian air raids in Syria towards rebels fightingPresident of SyriaBashar al-Assad inAleppo.[50]
Lee Stranahan was hired by Sputnik News after his departure fromBreitbart News and, according toThe Washington Post, he is Sputnik's most visible Trump supporter".[51][52][53][54] In early 2020, at the time of theImpeachment of President Trump, Stranahan stated "the entire impeachment is a lie."[36]The Washington Post stated that "many Sputnik hosts profess skepticism that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election," in contradiction to the assessment of the US intelligence community.[51]
On 26 May 2017,Andrew Feinberg, who had been Sputnik's White House Correspondent since theTrump administration came into office the previous January, announced on Twitter that he would no longer be reporting for the agency.[55][56] He said those in charge were more interested in employing "propagandists" rather than "real journalists".[57] In one tweet he explained the agency's policy in article's attribution: "The truth is they don't want their reporters to have their own reputations, b/c a lie is easier when it doesn't come with a byline."[57] He toldErik Wemple ofThe Washington Post: "It's the fact that if you don't have bylines on stories and there's no one accountable for words, then you can really print whatever you want.[55][56] Sputnik, in a statement toThe Washington Post, accused Feinberg of making "false accusations" and expressed the "hope that the fruits of his rich imagination would not create more conspiracy theories around Sputnik."[58]
Feinberg, in discussing his period at Sputnik, said that Sputnik's editors[56] asked him to write stories and ask questions at the White House press conference about theconspiracy theory between the murder of Democratic National Committee stafferSeth Rich in Washington and the leaking of DNC documents to WikiLeaks. Feinberg wrote of his discomfort as "there was absolutely no factual basis for doing so."[56][57][59] TheDistrict of Columbia police believed that Rich had been murdered while being robbed. Feinberg believed that the editors wanted to shift blame for the leaking of the DNC documents from Russian hackers to Rich.[56][55][60] Sputnik News has published articles promoting conspiracy theories about themurder of Seth Rich.[60]
In an interview withBrian Stelter forCNN, Feinberg said that Sputnik management had insisted on approving or dictating questions he would ask at White House press briefings, and wanted him to ask questions to imply that theApril 2017 Sarin gas attack in Syria was a hoax: "I was asked to put questions to the White House that framed the issue in such a way that made it seem that the attack didn't happen, that it was staged,"[61] In particular, he was asked to raise at the White House the assertions made byTed Postol querying Syrian responsibility for the attack. On that occasion, he was not called.[55] Feinberg wrote in aPolitico August 2017 article, he had concluded after the request that Sputnik's "mission wasn't really to report the news as much as it was to push a narrative that would either sow doubts about situations that weren't flattering to Russia or its allies, or hurt the reputation of the United States and its allies."[56]
In April 2018, journalistJohn Stanton, who had been Sputnik's Pentagon Correspondent for roughly two years, published a report highly critical of Sputnik News, Sputnik Radio, and RIA Novosti, declaring that both the organizations were part of a larger Russian Information Warfare Operation. His public findings were part of an insider research effort while at Sputnik on behalf of the US government.[62]
In May 2018, thePublic Broadcasting Service'sNewsHour website published an article by Elizabeth Flock who reported that Sputnik News and Radio reports "seemed intended to polarize" and "to distract and confuse" after listening to them over a week. On a visit to the station, she discovered "a stranger picture than I anticipated, one in which I began to understand how persuasive disinformation could be."[63] According to Flock, Stanton told her "They mix real with unreal, use dubious sources". It was difficult for him to point to the real problem as it "was like pushing a wet noodle." In other words, establishing what can be labelled disinformation is extremely difficult, she concluded.[63]
Foreign Policy magazine has described Sputnik as a slick and internet-savvy outlet ofKremlin propaganda, which "remixes President Vladimir Putin's brand of revanchist nationalism for an international audience... beating a predictable drum of anti-Western rhetoric."[11]
In January 2022, theU. S. State Department'sGlobal Engagement Center (GEC) published a report titled "Kremlin-Funded Media: RT and Sputnik's Role in Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem." Its case studies included one on "false narratives" published by Sputnik and RT justifying Russian military buildup on the Ukrainian border.[64]
Ben Nimmo, in a paper for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), wrote that Sputnik invitations concentrate on a select group of politicians for their east European services, especially those known for their pro-Russian (Tatjana Ždanoka in Latvia) or anti-EU opinions (Janusz Korwin-Mikke in Poland). These two political figures have limited support in their countries; Korwin-Mikke gained slightly more than 3% in Poland's presidential election in May 2015, while Ždanoka is barred from holding public office for her opposition to Latvia's independence from Russia.[12] Sputnik has spread a false claim aboutAngela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, who was wrongly said to have posed for a selfie with an ISIS suspect.[65]
In the opinion of Kevin Rothrock, Russia editor forGlobal Voices, Sputnik "acts as a spoiler to try and disrupt or blur information unfriendly to Russia, such as Russian troops' allegedinvolvement in the war in Ukraine".[66]
German journalist and author Michael Thumann describes Sputnik as being part of what he calls Russia's "digitalinformation war against the West".[67]Peter Pomerantsev, in an article for the LondonSunday Times, wrote that in the 2017 German elections the Sputnik news agency was negative or neutral about the country's political parties, with the exception of the right-wing nationalistAlternative for Germany (AfD).[68]
Alexander Podrabinek, a Russian journalist who works forRadio France Internationale[69][70] (part ofFrench Government'sFrance Médias Monde) andRadio Liberty[71] (supervised byBroadcasting Board of Governors, anIndependent agency of theU.S. Federal government) has accused Sputnik of disseminating Russian state propaganda abroad.[72] In a vote urging for theEuropean Union (EU) to "respond to information warfare by Russia", theEuropean Parliament accused broadcasting channels Sputnik andRT of "information warfare", and placed Russian media organisations alongside terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State. The federal agency ofRossotrudnichestvo and theRusskiy Mir Foundation were also seen as tools for Russianpropaganda.[73] According to a study byMasaryk University, Sputnik is one of the major sources of Russian propaganda in the Czech Republic.[74]
In August 2016, Sputnik opened offices inEdinburgh,Scotland,[75] its headquarters in the UK.[76] The agency established its radio studio and bureau in the city.[77] In April 2021,The Times reported Russian sources had said Sputnik's London and Edinburgh offices were closing with the outlet's English language staff being concentrated in Washington DC and Moscow.[78][79]
A January 2017 report by The Swedish Institute of International Affairs found that a Swedish-language version of Sputnik News website was one of the main tools used by the Russian government to spread false information in Sweden including publicizing documents posted on little-known Swedish and Russian websites which were found to be forgeries.[13][80] According to the report, Sputnik News frequently focused on negative stories aboutNATO and the EU, consistent with Russia's foreign policy interest of minimizing NATO's role in the Baltic region and keeping Sweden out of NATO.[16][80] A research analysis done by Martin Kragh and Sebestian Asberg at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, found that Swedish Sputnik focused on depicting Russia as under attack by aggressive Western governments, describing EU as being in "terminal decline", and NATO as a dangerous military threat.[81][82] These efforts were believed to try to change how the public in Sweden viewed its government and the EU.[82] The Swedish-language version ran for a year from April 2015 to spring of 2016, where it was forced to shut down and removed from the internet in that year.[83][81]
In April 2017,Emmanuel Macron'scampaign team banned both RT and Sputnik from campaign events. A Macron spokesperson said the two broadcasting outlets showed a "systematic desire to issue fake news and false information".[84] A report claiming the pro-Russian candidate,François Fillon, had returned to the lead prior to the election was the subject of a reprimand from the country's election commission. Sputnik had falsely attributed the result to an opinion poll, whereas the assertion had actually originated from Brand Analytics, a Moscow-based company.[85][86] A few weeks after Macron won the presidential election, President Putin visited the Versailles Palace. During a joint press conference with the Russian leader, Macron himself accused Sputnik and RT of having "produced slanderous countertruths".[87]
In June 2019, it was found that Serbian language outlet of Sputnik has infiltrated a disinformation hub inBosnia and Herzegovina. These findings were published by internationally recognizedfact-checking platform Raskrinkavanje,[88] which wrote reports about Sputnik bias towards spreading disinformation,[89] in a 106-page document.[90]
With the intention of protecting democratic values and to combatRussian disinformation campaigns utilizing RT and Sputnik, the European Union establishedThe East StratCom Task Force in 2015.[91][2]
During the 2022Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sputnik republished an RIA Novosti article titled "The arrival/attack of Russia and the new world" ("Наступление России и нового мира"), which falsely claimed that Russia had won theRusso-Ukrainian War, lauded Putin's invasion for solving the "Ukrainian question", and declared the end of "Western global domination" with the start of a "new world order" that joined Russia,Belarus, andUkraine against the rest of Europe. The article remained available on Sputnik's website after RIA Novosti took it down from its own.[92][93]
A report by Sputnik's Belarusian service claimed the virus was an "Anglo-Saxon" plot to counter China while Sputnik's associated outlet in South Ossetia (currently occupied by Russian armed forces) said the COVID-19 virus was created as a weapon in the West for information warfare.[94][95] Its Armenian affiliate insisted the virus had been created in a US laboratory. A Sputnik-associated outlet in Latvia, suggested it might have been created in Latvia.[94]
In the Middle East, Russia used Sputnik andRT Arabic to promote its foreign policy goals through "informational warfare".[96] Russia tried to increase its power and presence in the Middle East as well as reduce United States influence in the region, fight terrorism, and establish allies in Syria with Bashar al-Assad.[96]
In April 2017, Sputnik and RT reported little to no information on the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack in Syria.[96] During the attacks, Sputnik and RT did not report on the incident; there was no coverage provided on the survivors or their testimonies, and the history of violence in the area such as massacres, bombings, and chemical attacks that have occurred in the Syrian regime were not recorded.[96] After the massacre, Sputnik and RT widely questioned the cause and the history of the massacre through daily reports; false and missing information was frequently cited as the identities of the claimed "experts" were not shared, and alternative versions of the event were falsely reported as they claimed that the attacks were done by theWhite Helmets, a Syrian civil volunteer organization.[96] Journalist Finian Cunningham wrote that the White Helmets were "propaganda conduits foral-Qaeda terror groups" which contributed to the controversy and negative news that the White Helmets faced.[97] Published reports by Sputnik at the time were considered biased and did not consist of reliable sources or experts.[97] These statements were shared by Sputnik and RT throughout social media platforms as well as other news outlets that supported the Syrian regime.[98]
In March 2016, access to Sputnik's online content was blocked by Turkish authorities, as well as denying the Turkish bureau chief Tural Kerimov access to the country. The development was thought to have been in response to comments by the Russian leadership critical of PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Turkish government's record on human rights and freedom of speech.[99] The website was unblocked later that same year.[100] In 2018, the agency shut down its website in theKurdish language without mentioning any particular reason for the decision. Former employees of Sputnik said that the news agency decided to shut it down atTurkey's request, as part of both anti-Kurdish political movement and pro-Russian politics of Erdoğan.[101]
In October 2017,Twitter banned both RT and Sputnik from advertising on their social networking service following the conclusions of the U.S. national intelligence report the previous January that both Sputnik and RT had been used as vehicles forRussia's interference in the 2016 US presidential election.[102] The decision prompted a stern response from spokeswomanMaria Zakharova of theRussian Foreign Ministry, saying the ban was a "gross violation" by the United States of the guarantees of free speech, and that "Retaliatory measures, naturally, will follow".[103] In November,Alphabet chairmanEric Schmidt announced thatGoogle will be "deranking" stories from RT and Sputnik in response to "weaponised" content and allegations about election meddling by President Putin's government, provoking claims of censorship from both outlets.[104]
To reduce the spread of disinformation,Facebook and Google implemented fact-checking tools throughout their platforms.[105] In January 2019, Facebook removed 289 pages and 75 accounts that the company said were used by Sputnik for misinformation on Facebook.[106] The removed pages posed as independent news sites in eastern Europe and elsewhere but were actually run by employees at Sputnik. It was another in a series of actions taken by Facebook against Russian disinformation.[17][107] Along with Chinese and other Russian state media outlets, Twitter attached a "state-affiliated media" label to Sputnik's account.[108] TheWikipedia community hasdeprecated Sputnik as an unreliable source of information.[109]
In July 2019, BritishForeign and Commonwealth Office banned both RT and Sputnik from attending the Global Conference for Media Freedom inLondon for "their active role in spreading disinformation". The Russian Embassy called the decision "direct politically motivated discrimination".[110] European Union External Action East StratCom Task Force and separate fact-checkers have discerned reoccurrences of Sputnik and RT publishing false information.[111]
In January 2020, the Estonian offices of Sputnik were closed after police warned its journalists about potential criminal charges. The action taken by the Estonian government was a result of European Union sanctions imposed on Dmitry Kiselyov. Banks in Estonia suspended Sputnik related accounts in October 2019.[112]
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, the president of the European Commission,Ursula von der Leyen, announced the banning of Sputnik, along with RT and their subsidiaries, from the European Union.[21] Social media services including Facebook,Instagram,TikTok, andYouTube blocked Sputnik and RT content for their European Union users,[113] whileReddit blocked outgoing links to Sputnik's and RT's websites in all regions.[114] On 2 March, an EU regulation was published, which put the ban in force.[115]Microsoft andApple Inc. responded by removing the Sputnik and RT apps from theMicrosoft Store and theApp Store, respectively.[116][117] On 11 March, YouTube blocked Sputnik and RT worldwide.[118]
On 13 September 2023, the bureau chief of SputnikMoldova, Vitaly Denisov, was deported and banned entry into the country for 10 years.[119][120] Moldova's General Inspectorate for Migration stated that Denisov's presence in Moldova "endangers the informational security of our country." Daniel Voda, the Moldovan press secretary, stated that Sputnik was "constantly dealing with informational attacks, lies, propaganda and disinformation."Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswomanMaria Zakharova called the deportation "ugly" and promised "retaliatory measures."[121] Moldova believes Denisov is a Russian Colonel andGRU officer.[122]
As a news agency, Sputnik maintains the following news wires:[123]
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Apart from wire services, Sputnik also operatesonline news in following languages:
Sputnik previously operated the following editions, which were later shut down (some as effect of sanctions):
In 2023, the Sputnik radio had broadcasts in seven languages, including:[124]
Because of the centralisation of statue authority and greater state influence over the media in Russia as compared to the EU, it is relatively easy for Moscow to project a coherent and unified interpretation of events. For Russia, an important vehicle is the state-owned Sputnik and associated RIA Novosti media and news outlets, as well as the RT news and internet channel, which, besides the Russian version, is broadcast in English, French, German, Spanish and Arabic.
The emphasis on disorientation appears in the literature on modern Russian propaganda, both in inward-focused applications and in its international propaganda outlets, Sputnik and RT (formerly, Russia Today). Here, the purpose is not to convince the audience of any particular truth but instead to make it impossible for people in the society subject to the propagandist's intervention to tell truth from non-truth.
The propaganda apparatus proper consists of four means: media, social media, political communication and diplomacy, and covert active measures, all tied together in a coordinated manner. The main international media channel is the RT broadcaster and website, formerly known asRussia Today. It is complemented bySputnik radio and website, news and video agencies, and theRussia Beyond the Headlines news supplement, making up a news conglomerate operating in almost 40 languages.
Almost all important media in Russia are state controlled and used to feed Russian audience with Kremlin propaganda. For international propaganda Kremlin uses agencies like RT and Sputnik. Both are available in many language variations and in many countries (Hansen 2017). Aim of this propaganda is to exploit weak spots and controversial topics (in our case migration to the EU) and use them to harm integrity of the West (Pomerantsev and Weiss 2014).
When it comes to overt reach, the Russian government openly funds English-speaking outlets, such as Sputnik News and RT. These outlets serve as a frequent source of pro-Kremlin disinformation both according to scholars, fact-checkers and Western authorities (BBC, 2019; Elliot, 2019; Thornton, 2015).
For comparative purposes, we also included two prominent Russian news sites which have featured in European policy discussions around disinformation, namely Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik. These Russian state-backed organisations are clearly different from sites that engage in for-profit fabrication of false news, but both independent fact-checkers and the EU's European External Action Service East Stratcom Task Force have identified multiple instances where these sites have published disinformation.
Russian state-funded and state-controlled media began spreading disinformation narratives describing the Ukrainian government, and a significant portion of the population, as either fascists or Nazis...Sputnik also worked alongside RT to spread this inflammatory narrative.
