Tabloid Bild reported that RT forced its German employees to spy on Navalny. The TV channel promised to file a lawsuit

The RT television channel announced its intention to file a lawsuit against the tabloid Bild over an article that said that RT German employees were forced to spy on politician Alexei Navalny .

Bild's article , titled "I had to keep an eye on Navalny," was published on March 9. It cites an account by German RT employee Daniel Lange: according to him, he broke his contract with RT after he was asked to "spy" on Navalny while he was being treated at Berlin's Charité clinic.

As Lange explained, he was added to a secret chat with the management of RT's German service and asked to carry out a "special order." He and his colleague had to enter the clinic unnoticed as patients, and then find out where Navalny's ward was and how close they could get to him.

According to Lange, after some time he realized that his task was not to film exclusive footage and get ahead of competitors, but to find weak spots in the clinic's security. Then he deliberately attracted the attention of the staff - they copied his data about his place of work, after which the RT management cancelled the assignment and suggested following Navalny's associates Leonid Volkov and Maria Pevchikh.

In a report about the preparation of a lawsuit against the tabloid, RT hinted that the publication in Bild could be part of a campaign against the TV channel in Germany. RT noted that its German editorial office recently received a notice about the closure of its account at the Сommerzbank bank. The TV channel emphasized that 15% of the bank's shares belong to the German state.

• On March 8, Lange published a book , "RT Deutsch Inside: Putin's Medienarmee in Germany," in which he talks about his two-year experience working for the TV channel. Among other things, the book includes a story about surveillance of Navalny.