This file photograph taken on December 28, 2016, shows logos of US online news and social networking service Twitter in Vertou, western France. (AFP PHOTO)
MOSCOW, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- Twitter's decision to ban advertising by Russia's RT television channel and Sputnik news agency shows the U.S. authorities' control over the decision-making of the company, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday.
"In our opinion, by this ban Twitter demonstrated its commercial impotence and absolute dependence on the will of power establishment of the United State, which directly controls the decision-making process in this company, as we now see it," the ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
Last Thursday, Twitter announced it had decided to prohibit advertising by accounts owned by RT and Sputnik in its network due to their alleged meddling in the U.S. presidential election last year.
The spokeswoman noted that it is irrational to suspect Russia's interference in or influence on the elections when the money spent by the two Russia media on advertisement in Twitter last year is much less than donations obtained by candidates in their election campaigns.
"We consider this decision in the context of continued attempts of the U.S. Administration to eliminate sources of alternative information inconvenient for certain American political circles," she said.
On Thursday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow will take mirror-like measures if Washington continues pressure on Russian media working in the U.S.
"The demands that RT must register as a foreign agent entail an extreme complication of the professional activities of RT journalists working in the US...We will respond in a tough and mirror-like manner, if the American side does not retract its unacceptable demands," Ryabkov told reporters.
Washington has been accusing Moscow for months of interfering in the U.S. presidential election last year, although the latter has repeatedly denied these allegations. RT, Sputnik are among the institutions suspected of working on behalf of the Kremlin in its support of then Republican Party candidate Donald Trump.
