MOSCOW (Reuters) – A decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to cut financing for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a U.S. domestic decision which does not really concern Russia, the Kremlin said on Monday. More than 1,300 Voice of America employees were placed on leave on Saturday and funding for two U.S. news services that […]
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Kremlin says Trump funding cut for Radio Free Europe is a US internal matter
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MOSCOW (Reuters) – A decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to cut financing for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a U.S. domestic decision which does not really concern Russia, the Kremlin said on Monday.
More than 1,300 Voice of America employees were placed on leave on Saturday and funding for two U.S. news services that broadcast to authoritarian regimes was terminated, one day after Trump ordered the gutting of the government-funded media outlet’s parent and six other federal agencies.
“Well, these media outlets, in fact, they can hardly be classified as popular and in demand in the Russian Federation, so it doesn’t really concern us, but this is an internal decision of the U.S. administration,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Russia in February last year designated Radio Free Europe as an “undesirable organisation,” a move which effectively bans an organisation outright and creates problems for anyone who interacts with it.
(Reporting by Anastasiya Lyrchikova; Writing by Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)