March 3, 2022

PROPAGANDA MILL CEASES PRODUCTION: Russia’s RT America To Cease Production, Lays Off Staff.

Facing mounting financial pressures, Russia’s English-language TV network RT America will cease production and permanently lay off most of its staff, multiple media outlets reported on Thursday afternoon.

RT — which is owned by the Moscow-based TV Novosti and operated by T&R Productions — informed its employees via memo today: “As a result of unforeseen business interruption events, T&R Productions LLC will be ceasing production and, therefore, must lay off most of its staff who work at all its locations.”

“Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent, meaning that this will result in the permanent separation from employment of most T&R employees at all locations,” wrote T&R Productions’ general manager Mikhail “Misha” Solodovnikov.

The network offered affected employees two months’ severance pay, according to an employee who attended Thursday afternoon’s all-staff meeting.

The move came after one of the network’s two largest distributors, DirecTV, announced it was canceling the network’s coverage on Tuesday, government officials in the European Union formally banned the network, and Big Tech firms like Apple and Google blocked access to the network’s downloadable app. The state-funded network, which has long been accused of broadcasting Russian propaganda, had also been abandoned by many of its personalities and journalists since the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.

Meanwhile inside Russia itself, a Der Spiegel journalist tweets,  “Russia blocks Twitter, Facebook, BBC, Deutsche Welle, App Stores.” Hot Air’s John Sexton writes: Russia’s credit rating at junk status, annual inflation at 61%. (Will Putin institute martial law?)

Or to put it another way:

Posted at 8:30 pm by Ed Driscoll