RT India, a Kremlin-funded Russian propaganda channel

Vladimir Putin called the inauguration of RT India a "momentous event" that "grants millions of Indian citizens clearer, more direct access to insights about contemporary Russia - our realities, aspirations, and perspectives." Launched with the slogan "A new voice from an old friend," RT India made its debut with an advertising campaign across the country's main cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru. During his state visit to New Delhi in December 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin personally attended the opening ceremony for this new branch of the state media RT dedicated to Indian audiences.

RT India, which has recruited around 100 employees and has a studio in Noida (a city bordering the capital city of Delhi), broadcasts daily news bulletins and topical programs. It is accessible online, as well as via cable and satellite. The outlet claims to offer an "alternative narrative" to what the channel's CEO, Ashok Bagaria, described in an article of the online media outlet Newslaundry as the "one-sided narrative being presented by Western media outlets." The channel's launch comes amid a strategic rapprochement between Russia and India.

RT was welcomed with great fanfare in India, despite being hit with sanctions in several countries since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The channel has been banned from broadcasting in the European Union (EU) and is listed among the propaganda outlets sanctioned by a unanimous decision of the Council of the EU on 2 March 2022. The outlet was described as an entity "under the permanent direct or indirect control of the authorities of the Russian Federation (…) instrumental in bringing forward and supporting the military aggression against Ukraine." RT was also stripped of its broadcasting license in the United Kingdom and forced to cease operations in the United States.

When asked by RSF about the impact of RT's launch in India, Precious Chatterje-Doody - a senior lecturer at the Open University in the UK and co-author of the 2024 book Russia, Disinformation, and the Liberal Order: RT as Populist Pariah - analyses the situation as follows: "What we know is that RT is skilled at exploiting public debates. It inserts itself into pre-existing social controversies rather than trying to create new ones. It can therefore be seen as attempting to amplify trends that are already present in India, such as discussions about inequalities in the international system, and to steer them in a direction favourable to Russian foreign policy. A great deal of previous research has taught us that RT is very likely to present issues crucial to Russian foreign policy in a misleading way. The most obvious example is the war against Ukraine. In practice this means historical revisionism about the origins of the conflict, false claims etc."

Consequently, according to RSF observations, RSF India systematically portrays the United States and Ukraine as "destabilising forces." Anti-American angles are framed within the narrative of India's "rise to power," where relations between New Delhi and Moscow are presented as "essential." It is hardly surprising that a special program on the Donbas,a region in eastern Ukraine partially occupied by Russia, was broadcast on the channel in March. The segment included an interview with a contributor from International Reporters, an online platform funded by Moscow's influence networks that hijacks journalistic conventions to spread Russian disinformation.

At the crossroads of Indian "national" interests and Kremlin narratives

According to RSF analysis of RT's news coverage in India, the network sits precisely at the crossroads of Indian "national" interests and Kremlin narratives, viewed through an anti-Western geopolitical lens. "RT has a track record of engaging with - though not necessary endorsing outright - conspiracy theories that circulate in the media environment. The BJP [Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governing Bharatiya Janata Party] also has form for spreading politically-motivated conspiracy theories. It's easy to imagine how these trends might converge," Precious Chatterje-Doody says. " RT has never operated as a silo. It does hand-in-glove with other - often less obvious - aspects of Russia's foreign policy influence apparatus" she adds.

The rollout of media cooperation

The launch of RT India is therefore part of a broader media cooperation strategy. During Vladimir Putin's state visit to India in December 2025, several agreements were announced between Russian and Indian entities. The Press Trust of India news agency signed a pact with the Russian state news agency TASS. Meanwhile, National Media Group, a media company close to the Kremlin, inked cooperation deals with Prasar Bharati - the country's main public broadcaster, reaching 98% of the population - with South Asia's leading multimedia news agency, Asian News International (ANI), and with the Indian media group TV9 Network. Prasar Bharati also signed memorandums of understanding with Gazprom-Media Holding, National Media Group, BIG ASIA Media Group, TV BRICS, and ANO TV-Novosti, the parent company of RT. This comes after the Indian agency Asian News International (ANI) signed in July 2025 a strategic partnership for content sharing with Russia's leading multimedia information centre, Izvestia Multimedia Information Center (Izvestia MIC), owned by National Media Group.