MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Last week, Pompeo said that Russia managed to increase effectiveness of its external influence due to its soft power instruments, including news outlets like RT and Sputnik. He added that it was a part of the alleged Russian doctrine seeking to "win wars without firing a single shot."
"This is a decades-old challenge for America. No, it [Russian influence] hasn't abated. No, I don't expect it to abate… We still face a threat from the Russians whether it's, pick a name, active measures or propaganda, or trying to shape world public opinion through a whole host of means—some overt, some less so," Pompeo told The Washington Free Beacon outlet.
The CIA director stressed the need for retaliatory measures.
"We have an obligation to push back, defeat it, to work to make it painful for them so that they'll reduce the magnitude of what they're doing," Pompeo said.
In May, CIA spokeswoman Heather Fritz Horniak told RT the involvement of Russian intelligence services in alleged hacking related to the US election was an "established fact," which media outlets like RT would "attempt to muddle." RT and Sputnik Editor-In-Chief Margarita Simonyan said that the claim lacks evidence and "no reputable news organization trusts the CIA. Now that is correct."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Russia is not a threat to anyone, but Moscow could not ignore any actions that could present a threat to its own national interests.
