[7] RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan urged the Russian authorities to ban German media organisations in Russia and impose sanctions against YouTube.

Its parent organization, TV Novosti, attempted to apply for a television license in Luxembourg in June 2021, which was denied in August on the grounds that RT DE had been based in Berlin and was therefore under German jurisdiction.

[16][20][21] At the beginning of February 2022, RT DE announced its intention to appeal against the decision, though according to Reuters, it formally had only until the end of 2021 to respond.

[27] Die Tageszeitung summed up the selection of the interlocutors of the first weeks of RT Deutsch with "either flaming anti-American and European opponents of the left and right margins" together.

[28][29] In February 2016 a former employee called RT Deutsch "skilful propaganda" and claimed that they are concentrating on an audience of conspiracy theorists and persons on the far-right of the political spectrum.

[30] In February 2021, through obtained emails, a Der Spiegel investigation provided insights on how the station planned a platform for fringe groups to undermine democracy in Germany.