US-based company RIA Global, which provides content for Russian news agency Sputnik, has registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The company said in its registration filings that it has “independent editorial control” over the shows, newswires, and website articles and that it “respectfully disagrees that FARA should apply.” RIA Global was notified in January it had to register under FARA or face repercussions. Russian media outlets were targeted in the US after an intelligence report branded RT and Sputnik as tools in Moscow’s alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election. As a “mirror response,” Moscow passed its own foreign agent bill last year.
