US Sanctions Russia For Election Interference
Photo: Reuters/Anna Rose Layden
WASHINGTON, DC (REUTERS) – The Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced September 4 a joint effort to target with sanctions and criminal charges what the Biden administration says are Russian government-sponsored attempts to manipulate US public opinion ahead of the November election.
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced charges against two employees of the Russian-backed media network RT accused of conspiring to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act in an indictment unsealed September 4 in the Southern District of New York.
“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda,” Garland said.
While the indictment redacted the names of political parties and candidates, it was clear through the documents that the Russians sought to bolster Republican former President Donald Trump and to harm Democratic efforts — whose nominee likely would have been Joe Biden at the time.
Garland accused Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva of implementing a nearly $10 million scheme to hire a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate pro-Russian content. That company then contracted with U.S.-based social media influencers to share content on their platforms. The information was “often consistent with Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine,” the attorney general said.
Kalashnikov identified himself as RT’s “Deputy Chief of the Digital Media Projects Department,” and Afanasyeva has identified herself on social media as a “producer at RT, dealing with overseas affairs and news,” the indictment said.
“The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers as ties to RT and the Russian government. Instead, the defendants and the company claimed that the company was sponsored by a private investor, but that private investor was a fictitious persona,” Garland said.
The company published “hundreds of videos” that contained “commentary on events and issues in the United States, such as immigration, inflation, and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy.”
At the White House briefing, when asked if high-level Russian officials were clued into RT’s activity, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. believes Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware.
“We believe Mr. Putin is weighing in on these actions,” Kirby said.
The attorney general said that the investigation remains ongoing, and that the DOJ is seizing 32 internet domains that the Russian government and Russian actors have used to influence the U.S. election.
The attorney general made clear that Iran has also been responsible for activities seeking to compromise former President Donald Trump’s campaign to interfere with the election outcome.
“The Justice Department’s message is clear: We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government. We will be relentlessly aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by Russia, Iran, as well as China or any other foreign malign actor, interfere in elections and undermine our members.”
