Russia’s RT Adapts and Thrives Despite Global Sanctions

Despite bans across Europe, the US, and Canada, Russia’s state-funded network RT is far from gone. The Kremlin’s favorite media weapon has morphed into a hybrid propaganda machine—streaming through smaller platforms, partner outlets, and social media ecosystems that still reach millions.

To mark its 20th anniversary in October 2025, RT produced a deepfake video using AI to generate images of popular American anchors, including Anderson Cooper (CNN), Rachel Maddow (MSNBC), and Sean Hannity (Fox News). Framed as a confession pieced together from fragments “spoken” by each journalist, the Russian channel accused them of lacking objectivity and serving only U.S. government interests.

While the video features American anchors, its “anti-imperialist” message appears targeted not at U.S. audiences but at Russia’s new media priorities: countries in the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia—regions where RT has pivoted its focus since Western sanctions limited its reach.

Earlier in October, a Russian “journalist” appeared on CNews, one of France’s major news channels, denying evidence that NATO countries had been attacked by Russian-launched drones. This was no random pundit but Xenia Fedorova, former head of RT France, employing the channel’s trademark rhetorical techniques to divert attention from facts.

RT’s Evolution into a Weapon of Mass Destabilization

Created in 2005 under Putin’s direct supervision, RT quickly evolved from a Russian branding channel into a weaponized global broadcaster. Then 25-year-old journalist Margarita Simonyan was appointed head of the channel at launch, having previously reported from Chechnya and the Beslan school hostage crisis.

The channel gained significant traction in 2008 through its coverage of Russia’s assault on Georgia, presenting the Kremlin’s deceptive narratives as “alternative” viewpoints. Following this success, RT expanded its reach, adding Arabic, Spanish, German, and French services to its original English and Russian broadcasts.

According to Maxime Audinet, author of “Russia Today (RT): A Weapon of Influence” (2021), RT then shifted away from covering Russia to becoming an overseas megaphone for “alternative,” anti-establishment, conspiratorial, and pro-Russian voices. The network offered significant resources to attract defectors from “mainstream” media.

High-profile figures appeared on or collaborated with the channel, including U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in 2012, philosopher Slavoj Žižek until January 2022, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who hosted his own RT show.

While RT stayed largely silent on the 2006 poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, it later flooded the internet with contradictory claims about the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018. Researchers documented 138 distinct and contradictory narratives in 735 RT and Sputnik pieces published in the month following the incident.

Audinet explains this as RT’s method of “disorientation”—diluting reliable information by simultaneously disseminating alternative and contradictory versions. “A confused, passive reader is left unable to distinguish reality from fiction, truth from falsehood,” he notes.

From 2008 to today, RT has pursued a strategy of destabilization, harvesting audience gains during politically divisive events. During France’s Yellow Vests crisis (2018–2019), RT’s views climbed from 7.1 million in November to 12.9 million in January, before dropping as the crisis faded.

Western Bans and RT’s Adaptation

Western countries acted decisively only after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Council of the EU suspended RT’s broadcasting activities on March 2, 2022, specifically targeting RT English, UK, Germany, France, and Spanish services.

However, these restrictions targeted the channel’s broadcast licenses—not its content production or legal presence in countries where it operated. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue reported: “The enforcement of sanctions on Russian state media by European ISPs remains inconsistent. Across the three largest ISPs in six Member States, less than a quarter of attempts to access the content were effectively blocked.”

In March 2022, Ofcom revoked RT’s broadcast license in the UK due to concerns about its relationship with the Russian state. Without a license, RT France proceeded to liquidation in spring 2023, though studios operated until then. One of the most significant blows to RT’s outreach was its ban from Meta platforms (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp), particularly across the Global South.

RT’s Transformation into an “Information Guerrilla”

Since the bans, RT has seen many local channels and bureaus shut down. Yet by exploiting slow enforcement, local media allies, and regional repositioning, it appears to maintain large audiences, with Russian operatives still active in many countries.

Simonyan now openly calls RT an “information guerrilla.” Audinet lists RT’s tactics to bypass EU sanctions:

• Creating mirror sites hosted in jurisdictions with murky laws
• Distributing content on alternative platforms with looser moderation (Odysee, Rumble, VK, RuTube)
• Using front companies to republish RT content
• “Information laundering” through influencers who relay RT content as personal opinion

In 2024, Simonyan confirmed RT’s heavy use of artificial intelligence: “We have a significant proportion of TV presenters who do not exist. They don’t exist, they are artificial completely. This person doesn’t exist, and never did. This face never existed, we generated the voice, everything else, the character.”

RT’s Reinvention in Key European Markets

RT remains active in at least seven languages, with three cases demonstrating its adaptability in countries that have imposed sanctions:

United Kingdom (RT International/RT UK)
Despite Ofcom’s license revocation in March 2022, the brand maintains a strong online presence by:

• Relocating technical teams to Dubai
• Exploiting divisive themes like immigration and Islamism
• Indirectly amplifying radical narratives during the summer 2025 riots

Afshin Rattansi, an RT UK host, relocated to Dubai and continues his show “Going Underground” for a pro-Assad and pro-Palestinian audience.

France (RT France/RT Africa)
Though RT France was liquidated in 2023, Xenia Fedorova continues to appear on CNews, sharing pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reporters Without Borders has compared the Bolloré media group, which owns CNews, to state propaganda structures observed in Russia.

Germany (RT DE)
Germany was among the first to ban RT, but mirror sites like freed**.online (up to 690,000 monthly visits) continue to host German-language content. Former RT DE journalists have regrouped in “independent” structures in Dubai (Viory) or Leipzig (Red).

RT’s Persistent Audience Despite Bans

Website traffic analysis reveals how RT’s audiences have evolved since sanctions. The English-language website (which includes Russian-language content) increased from 26.3 million to 47.8 million visits between 2018 and 2025. In contrast, the French website saw its traffic drop more than twentyfold due to the ban. The Spanish site experienced a smaller but still notable decline, while RT Arabic grew slightly from 6.2 million to 6.7 million visits.

Mirror sites continue to distribute RT content in Europe despite bans. Between July and September 2025, a mirror of RT International drew up to 309,000 monthly visits, mostly from Sweden, while a mirror of RT DE recorded up to 690,000 monthly visits, almost entirely from Germany.

Countering RT’s Global Information War

Experts recommend strengthening legal, technical, and monitoring frameworks under the Digital Services Act and European Democracy Shield by:

• Monitoring Kremlin-affiliated media to track their online activity and narratives
• Establishing a public list of mirror sites linked to sanctioned entities

Some have drawn parallels to historical precedents for prosecuting propagandists, noting that Russian propagandists at RT have engaged in rhetoric that potentially violates the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The French Institute of International Relationships recently noted: “The psycho-informational impact aims to transform individuals and societies in the long term—on both the emotional and psychological levels.”

As the Kremlin’s media weapon continues to adapt and evolve, many Russian propagandists remain unsanctioned, continuing to wage Moscow’s global information war from new bases of operation around the world.