Russia has restricted access to various foreign media sites following its invasion of Ukraine. Yet over in Washington, the seat of American power, Russia state media freely broadcasts propaganda daily over local radio.
Moscow’s Radio Sputnik is carried by WZHF-AM in suburban Maryland with a signal that reaches the Capitol, the White House and much of the Washington area. On recent shows, speakers praised Russian leader Vladimir Putin, dismissed Ukraine’s government as “the Kyiv regime” and called civilian casualties in the war “incredibly light.”
The programming uses leased time on radio facilities owned by U.S. companies. It’s drawing the ire of lawmakers and others.
“As Vladimir Putin wages a brutal onslaught against Ukrainian democracy, it’s deeply troubling that WZHF, Washington, D.C., continues to air Russian propaganda defending this vicious invasion without informing its listeners that the broadcast is sponsored by the Russian government,” Representative Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat, said in an email.
WZHF’s signal is repeated over an FM tower in Washington’s Virginia suburbs. That facility’s owner, John Garziglia, said he has a right to broadcast the programming under First Amendment guarantees of free speech.
“I trust the citizens who live in Washington D.C., including members of Congress and the administration, to take the programming for what it is,” Garziglia said in an interview.
WZHF’s owner and Radio Sputnik didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Radio Sputnik programming, under the slogan “Telling the untold,” offers talk shows with American hosts and guests. Recent episodes have outlined President Joe Biden’s plan to bar Russian energy imports, asked whether Putin’s drive into Ukraine is becoming a quagmire, and called for a working-class movement to counter an “anti-Russia war drive.”
Sputnik is the main foreign-facing project of Rossiya Segodnya, an international news agency created in 2013 by a Russian presidential executive order, according to a January State Department report.
Sputnik and RT, the former Russia Today, serve as “critical elements in Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem,” the State Department said in the report. RT America, the U.S. arm of the Russian-government-controlled TV channel, shut down after U.S. distributors including DirecTV and Roku dropped the network.
The European Union announced on Feb. 27, three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, that it’s “developing tools” to ban RT and Sputnik for spreading “toxic and harmful disinformation.”
Foreign-sponsored programming like Radio Sputnik is allowed on U.S. airwaves, although foreign governments can’t own U.S. broadcast stations. The Federal Communications Commission last year adopted rules requiring on-air disclosure, citing increased airwaves leasing by foreign governments.
At the top of each hour, the Washington-area broadcast says the program is offered “on behalf of the federal state unitary enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency, Moscow, Russia.”
That language doesn’t fulfill FCC requirements for a plain identification of the country sponsoring the programming, according to Eshoo.
Eshoo is not the only critic. The National Association of Broadcasters on March 1 called for Radio Sputnik programing to go off the air.
“While the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, however, it does not prevent private actors from exercising sound, moral judgment,” Curtis LeGeyt, the trade group’s president, said in an emailed statement.
Jupiter, Florida-based RM Broadcasting LLC, is paid by Radio Sputnik’s parent to place the programming on WZHF.
RM Broadcasting said in a statement that it “stands with Ukraine.”
“RM Broadcasting is dedicated to the unfettered exchange of information and ideas,” the company said.
According to its foreign-agent filings with the Justice Department, RM Broadcasting received $822,503.64 from Rossiya Segodnya last year. The broker paid $390,000 to WZHF’s owner, New York-based Way Broadcasting Licensee LLC. It also paid the owner of a Kansas City, Missouri station, KCXL, $60,000 to transmit Radio Sputnik.
Garziglia’s company Reston Translator LLC received $360,000 from Rossiya Segodnya for the 12 months ended Nov. 30, according to its Justice Department filings.
The Kansas City station, KCXL, airs Radio Sputnik for three hours in the morning and three in the evening. Owner Peter Schartel said he considered dropping the programming after the invasion of Ukraine, but changed his mind.
“Putting our heads in the sand, not looking at all the information, saying ‘Oh, they’re bad’ — that’s not the answer,” Schartel said in an interview.
