Russia to Investigate CNN For ‘Meddling’ in 2016 Kremlin Elections

Cassandra Fairbanks   |  

Apr 19, 2017

In perhaps one of the greatest clap backs of all time, Russia has announced that they will be investigating whether or not the US media “meddled” in their 2016 parliamentary elections.

Leonid Levin, the head of the State Duma Committee on Information and Communication, announced that CNN, Voice of America, and Radio Free Europe will all be looked at as part of their investigation.

“The structures we are discussing are part of a larger American system of pressure on our country,” Levin said at a committee meeting on Tuesday, the Moscow Times reports. “They are using a variety of instruments in respect to both the Russian electoral process and on our country as a whole.”

Levin asserted that the US journalists covering their elections may have had an impact, seemingly mocking the allegations made about Russian media sites since the presidential election.

“The U.S. Senate is considering a bill which grants the U.S. Justice Ministry — including the FBI — additional powers to investigate potential violations of U.S. law by RT America. Similar claims have been leveled at [state-funded English-language news website] Sputnik and other Russian media,” he said.

Levin has now asked for representatives of CNN and Voice of America to appear before the committee.

Earlier this month, New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen set her sights on Sputnik News and RT, comparing Russian media to Nazi propaganda and calling for the companies to be registered as foreign agents.

Shaheen’s shocking statements were part of a speech lobbiying for a bill she proposed in March which would give the Department of Justice additional powers to investigate Russian media’s “funding sources and foreign connections.”

“Our bill will give the Department of Justice new and necessary authority to investigate potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act by RT America,” Shaheen said. “This act was passed in the late 1930s in response to concerns about Nazi propaganda being disseminated in the United States without people knowing what it was. Well, this, I think, is absolutely appropriate today for us to take a look at what Russia and other countries may be doing to our news.”