“They’re going to try to attack any kind of alternative voice in the media” – former CIA analyst Larry Johnson

“How is a news network that’s not allowed to broadcast and that’s shut [out] of social media in the United States supposed to influence [the election]?” former State Department counterterrorism expert Larry Johnson told Sputnik. The recent persecution of figures connected to RT and Sputnik is merely another attempt to run the “Russiagate” playbook, attempting to discredit alternative media outlets that critique US foreign policy, Johnson highlighted. “Electoral interference” continues to take place, Johnson claimed, but it is not the Russians but the US government that is engaged in an attempt to influence and control the popular narrative for its own benefit. “With respect to the entire bogus claim that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, we now know without a doubt that that was a Democrat operation led by Hillary Clinton and her team,” the analyst stressed. “Everything we were told about Donald Trump and the Russians was a lie. I was one of the few writing about it at the time to call it out… The notion that RT is manipulating and influencing the presidential election is beyond laughable,” he continued, noting that the Russian television channel’s app is banned from many app stores in the West while its content has been removed from YouTube and other websites.