Popular microblogging site Twitter will off-board advertising from all accounts owned by Russian media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik, it said in a statement Thursday.

Twitter said its decision was based on the U.S. intelligence community's conclusion that RT and Sputnik tried to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election on behalf of the Russian government.

Twitter said late last month it had suspended some 200 Russian-linked accounts as it probes online efforts to meddle with the 2016 election.

The microblogging site also said that they decided to donate $1.9 million they are projected to receive from RT global advertising to "support external research into the use of Twitter in civic engagement and elections."

On Thursday, RT accused Twitter of pushing it to spend millions on advertising ahead of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

RT published what it said was excerpts from Twitter's pitch made in April last year to get the TV station to spend millions of dollars on advertising, an offer that RT says it has turned down.

Twitter, Google and Facebook are scheduled to testify at congressional hearings next week on Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Twitter also said this week it will disclose more information on political ads.