The Kremlin is grateful to US Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who suspects the RT channel of possible violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, for the channel’s popularization, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

The Politico newspaper wrote Tuesday that Shaheen would introduce a bill that would give additional authority to the US Justice Department to conduct investigation of RT America for possible violations of the Act.

Shaheen accused RT of collision with the Russian government to spread misinformation and undermine the US democratic process. The US bill, dubbed Foreign Agents Registration Modernization and Enforcement Act, would also allow the Justice Department to compel entities to reveal their funding sources as well as foreign connections.

“We are grateful to the senator for the popularization of such an excellent news channel as RT,” Peskov told reporters.

“We expect this contribution to RT’s promotion will give thousands, tens of thousands or even millions of viewers access to alternative coverage by the RT television channel,” the spokesman added.

Earlier in the day, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan also commented on the controversial proposal. Simonyan replied with a hint at Sen. Joe McCarthy’s Cold-War era “witch hunts” for Soviet agents and warned the United States could soon “start shooting our journalists at squares.”

It is not the first time when Western states want to restrict the activity of Sputnik and RT. On November 16, the European Parliament voted in favor of a resolution, which said that Sputnik and RT posed danger to Europe’s unity and called for extra European Commission funding for counter-propaganda projects. It also drew a parallel between Russian media and the propaganda disseminated by Daesh.

Russian President Vladimir Putin commented on the matter by pointing out that the document indicates a degradation of democracy in the West. Praising Sputnik and RT for their work, the president expressed hope that real media restrictions would not follow.