Russia to impose restrictions on US media over RT row: Kremlin

MOSCOW, Sept 06 (AFP/Reuters): Russia will impose domestic restrictions on US media outlets in response to Washington's sanctions on Russian state-funded news network RT, the Kremlin said on Friday.

The United States indicted two RT employees and slapped its top editors with sanctions on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to influence the upcoming 2024 US presidential election.

"A symmetrical response is not possible. There is no state news agency in the US, and there is no state TV channel in the US," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state RIA Novosti news agency.

"But there will certainly be measures here that will restrict their media disseminating their information," he said.

Peskov also justified Moscow's unprecedented censorship during its Ukraine offensive, in a rare admission of Russia's tight grip on information.

"In the state of war that we are in, restrictions are justified and censorship is also justified," he said in separate remarks to the TASS news agency.

Peskov did not say what restrictions Russia would introduce against US media.

Most US media outlets downsized or pulled their staff from Russia when Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive amid laws targeting independent reporting on the conflict.

The 10 individuals and two entities sanctioned by the US Treasury Department on Wednesday included RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan and her deputy Elizaveta Brodskaia.

US officials have long warned of efforts by foreign powers to meddle in the upcoming US election, accusing Moscow of seeking to influence US ballots dating back to the 2016 contest between former President Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked if President Vladimir Putin's stated support for U.S. presidential candidate Kamala Harris was serious or a joke, said on Friday that people would have to figure it out for themselves.

Putin told an interviewer on Thursday that he preferred Harris over Donald Trump, citing her "infectious" laugh as a reason why she might be less inclined to penalise Russia with sanctions.

He was smiling as he delivered the remark - one of several apparently teasing comments he has made in the course of the U.S. campaign.

Asked if Putin had been serious, Peskov told reporters: "When he is asked about international affairs, he comments on them. As for his tone, people abroad who are interested must try to interpret that."

The White House said on Thursday that Putin should stop commenting on the November election.

Peskov said Putin's priority was Russia's wellbeing, and "American affairs cannot be, and are not, a concern that is at the top of the president's agenda".