Britain's media regulator Ofcom said Kremlin-backed Russian broadcaster RT had broken impartiality rules in news and current affairs programs aired in March and April, including coverage of the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. "Taken together, the seven breaches represent a serious failure of compliance with our broadcasting rules," Ofcom said on Thursday. "We have told RT that we are minded to consider imposing a statutory sanction." RT said it was "extremely disappointed" by Ofcom's conclusions and would decide its next steps shortly. The channel, which is broadcast by TV-Novosti and funded by Russia's Federal Agency for Press and Media Communications, provides a Russian perspective on UK and global news and current affairs.

Ofcom said RT's mission was to make available an alternative point of view on world events, especially Russia-related ones, but RT recognized that did not require presenting a Russian point of view as if it were the only point of view. But it said RT had failed to give sufficient weight to a range of views in seven current affairs discussion or news items. Two cases involved discussions of the Skripal poisoning on current affairs program "Sputnik," co-presented by former British lawmaker George Galloway, it said. Britain has accused Russia's GRU intelligence agency of trying to poison Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury in March. Russia denies the allegations.