The US government has ordered the shutdown of a satellite feed broadcasting the Russian language feed of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty into Russia.
The move comes despite a temporary restraining order against the freeze in funding ordered by President Donald Trump.
In an interview with AP, Stephen Capus, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty , said that the feed had been switched off by USAGM, the Washington-backed agency that has previously funded the transmissions.
“We came into work today and saw that satellite services that reach into Russia had been turned off by USAGM,” he said.
The decision affects the 24-hour Russian-language Current Time service into Russia, Ukraine, Central Asia and eastern Europe.
According to Capus, USAGM informed RFE/RL that the satellite contracts for the carriage of Current Time to Europe had been “terminated”.
Earlier this week customers of affiliates to the Canal Plus satellite platform M7 were told that it was ending transmissions of Current Time.
Staff at the Prague-based operation are currently on reduced-pay leave while RFE waits for USAGM to disburse the $77 million it needs to keep running until October.
Last month, Trump has signed an executive order to drastically scale back USAGM, which in addition funds non-profit entities including Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia and Current Time.
