Following CNN’s speedy retraction of a light-on-the-facts story claiming that an ally of US President Donald Trump had close financial ties to an investment fund managed by a state-run Russian bank, the network moved to tighten up its Russia coverage.

The executive editor of CNNMoney, Rich Barbieri, emailed a statement on Saturday issuing new publishing rules for CNN stories dealing with Russia, after retracting a Russia story one day before, according to The Hill.

According to Buzzfeed, which first reported on the CNN internal email, Barbieri stated that, "No one should publish any content involving Russia without coming to me and Jason [Farkas]."

"This applies to social, video, editorial, and MoneyStream. No exceptions," Barbieri's email added, cited by The Hill.

In wake of story retraction, CNNMoney exec editor sends memo to staff mandating all "Russia-related content" must be cleared by him or VP pic.twitter.com/2Y6QMZj1h5

— Jon Passantino (@passantino) 25 June 2017

The new CNN policy is in response to a Friday retraction of a published story that purported to connect Anthony Scaramucci, a Trump ally, to a state-run Russian bank.

"On June 22, 2017, CNN.com published a story connecting Anthony Scaramucci with investigations into the Russian Direct Investment Fund," the media company stated.

"That story did not meet CNN's editorial standards and has been retracted. Links to the story have been disabled. CNN apologizes to Mr. Scaramucci."

CNN's Russian scare story — one of what looks to be a continual stream of lightweight (and profitable) Kremlin fearmongering — inferred that the US Senate was investigating a $10 billion Russian investment fund (RDIF) with regard to Scaramucci, an executive committee member of Trump's transition team, cited by The Hill.

Moscow was quick to respond to the original piece, pointing out the many factual errors — as well as observing the ongoing output of CNN content attempting to drum up support for an anti-Russia agenda on Capitol Hill and in the US news media.

An RDIF spokesperson pointed out that the CNN story contained numerous errors and added that the RDIF fund fully complies with any and all standing legal requirements, and does not violate the current US sanctions regime.

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