Trump should not surrender in the information war against Putin’s Russia
As President Trump signed an executive order gutting the U.S. Agency for Global Media — which runs Voice of America and Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty — Washington is reportedly considering lifting sanctions on the Russian state-owned media outlet RT. That would be a mistake.
RT is a critical tool in Russia’s propaganda arsenal and, instead of easing pressure, the U.S. should launch an information offensive against Moscow.
Earlier this month, former RT America editor Ben Swann claimed that Trump would remove sanctions on RT, formerly known as Russia Today, “within two weeks’ time.” In an open letter published on social media, Swann praised Trump for moving at “warp speed” to protect freedom of speech. Speaking to RT, Swann expressed confidence that Trump “disagrees with these sanctions” and considers them “foolish.”
Swann’s reporting has not been corroborated by other media outlets, but regardless of its veracity, Trump should take heed of the dangers of sanctions relief. The Trump administration should protect free speech, but the Kremlin, through entities such as RT, takes advantage of America’s openness to disseminate propaganda and wage an information war.
Russian strategists and officials view information as a weapon rather than a medium for intellectual exchange or a competitive marketplace of ideas. Fifteen years ago, Russian military strategists Sergei Chekinov and Sergei Bogdanov argued that “the ongoing revolution in information technologies” would foster a security environment in which “information and psychological warfare will largely lay the groundwork for victory.” In 2017, Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu commented on Russia’s military modernization, noting that “information operations forces have been established, that are expected to be a far more effective tool than all we used before.” A few years later, in 2021, Shoigu said that “information has become a weapon.”
Under President Vladimir Putin, the Russian government has asserted greater control over the information space. In 2019, Russia adopted a “sovereign internet law” aimed at tightening control over the internet and cutting Russia off from the rest of the world. Since launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has stepped up efforts to control information flows, including by shutting down foreign social media platforms. The Kremlin also imposed wartime censorship laws that threaten prison time for deviating from the government’s line about the war.
Complementing these efforts, Putin aims to influence the information space abroad, and RT is one of his primary tools toward that end. Founded in 2005 to “reflect the Russian position on the main issues of international politics and inform the wider public about the events and phenomena of Russian life,” RT is a state-funded outlet that blends news coverage with outright conspiracy promotion. RT has been accused of “secretly push[ing] out propaganda through media sites in South America, Europe and Africa while hiding the Kremlin’s fingerprints.”
In light of this threat, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. sanctioned RT and Secretary of State Antony Blinken accused RT of undermining Western democracies, interfering in the American presidential election and fundraising for Russian military equipment to be used against Ukraine. The Biden administration targeted measures against RT’s editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, among others, and seized over two dozen web domains spreading disinformation.
RT derided accusations against the company as “the U.S.’s latest conspiracy theory.” Russia vowed to retaliate against American media, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigating Washington for not accepting “that there should be options ... for anyone to get news from our perspective.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the West’s “primitive ways of influencing their voters” indicated “the decline of ‘liberal democracies.’”
As the Kremlin’s furious reaction indicates, American sanctions struck a blow against a key tendril of Russian information operations abroad. Now is not the time to let up the pressure. Instead of lifting sanctions, the Trump administration should bring the information war to the Kremlin. Washington should use offensive information operations to prompt Moscow to make decisions that are to its disadvantage. It should exert influence on Putin’s actions and overwhelm Russian intelligence services, forcing them to use their energy and resources playing defense.
Free speech is woven into the fabric of America’s DNA, but that does not mean the U.S. should let adversarial foreign governments leverage its openness with impunity. Putin, a crafty and cunning former KGB agent, sees the modern battlefield as a complex, multidomain environment, where information can be used as strategically as brute force. America must come to terms with this reality even as is stays true to its ideals, and Trump should apply a resolute approach to deterring and, if necessary, punishing adversaries in the information space.
Ivana Stradner is a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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