"[8] The earliest (January 25, 2014) archived version of NEO's website describes it as "primarily interested in processes taking place at the broad expanse that stretches from Japan and the remote coasts of Africa ... We also look at political events happening in other areas of the world as they relate to the Orient.
[11] In 2017, Politico quoted University of Washington professor Kate Starbird describing Veterans Today is "a fake news site actively pushing the Kremlin party line.
According to the 2020 DOS report:[10] New Eastern Outlook is a pseudo-academic publication of the Russian Academy of Science’s Institute of Oriental Studies that promotes disinformation and propaganda focused primarily on the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.
"[20] A State Department source told the Wall Street Journal that Russia's foreign intelligence service directly controls content at two of the four disinformation outlets (NEO and Oriental Review).
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described reports of Russian interference as "nonsense," saying "If we treat every negative publication against the Sputnik V vaccine as a result of efforts by American special services, then we will go crazy because we see it every day, every hour and in every Anglo-Saxon media.
"[18] In March, 2022, the United States Department of the Treasury announced sanctions against several Russian individuals and organizations, including three said to be "disinformation outlets" controlled by Russia's SVR: New Eastern Outlook, Oriental Review, and Strategic Culture Foundation.
[21] Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen described the March 3 sanctions as "demonstrating our commitment to impose massive costs on Putin’s closest confidants and their family members and freeze their assets in response to the brutal attack on Ukraine.