WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has seized a Kremlin-run website and charged two Russian state media officials in its most far-reaching effort to counter what it claims are “Russian illicit activities.” Russia is trying to spread disinformation ahead of the presidential election in November.
The measures, which include sanctions and visa restrictions in addition to the indictments, represent an effort by the U.S. government just weeks before the November election to thwart a persistent threat from Russia that U.S. officials have long warned could sow discord and unrest among voters.
Washington has said Moscow, which intelligence officials say supports Republican Donald Trump, is Remains the biggest threat to elections The FBI continues to investigate Iranian hacking this year. Presidential campaigns of both political parties.
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“The Department of Justice’s message is clear: We will never tolerate attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
In one criminal case uncovered by the Department of Justice, two employees of the Russian state-run media outlet RT are accused of secretly paying nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based content production company to publish English-language videos on social media platforms such as TikTok and YouTube that contained messages supporting Russian government interests and policies, including the war in Ukraine.
According to prosecutors, the company’s roughly 2,000 videos have been viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube alone.
The defendants, Kostyantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Both are currently at large. It is not immediately clear whether they have lawyers.
The Justice Department said the company did not disclose that it had received funding from RT and that neither it nor its founders registered as an agent of a foreign principal, as required by law.
The indictment does not name the company, but describes it as a Tennessee-based content production company with six commentators and a website that describes itself as “a network of unorthodox commentators focusing on Western political and cultural issues.”
That description matches exactly Online company Tenet Media It hosts videos created by well-known conservative influencers Tim Pool, Benny Johnson and others.
Both Johnson and Poole responded to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, calling themselves “victims”, with Poole calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “despicable man” and writing: “If these allegations are true then I, and other public figures and commentators, have been duped.”
In the post, Johnson wrote that he was approached a year ago to provide content to a “media startup” and that his lawyers had negotiated a “standard arm’s length deal” that was later dissolved.
Tenet Media’s shows have featured prominent conservative guests in recent months, including Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump, former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and U.S. Senate candidate Kali Lake.
In another move, authorities announced they had seized 32 internet domains that the Kremlin had been using to spread Russian propaganda and undermine international support for Ukraine. The websites were designed to look like real news sites but were in fact fake, with fake social media personas created to appear as if they belonged to American users.
The Justice Department did not say which specific candidates the propaganda campaign was promoting, but an internal strategy memo from participants in the campaign released by the Justice Department on Wednesday made it clear that Trump was intended to benefit, even though the candidates’ names were redacted.
For example, one propaganda project proposal noted that one of its goals was to ensure the victory of a candidate not currently in power and to increase the percentage of Americans who believe the U.S. is supporting Ukraine too much. President Joe Biden has strongly supported Ukraine during the Russian aggression.
Intelligence agencies have previously said Russia was involved in the 2016 election A massive campaign of foreign influence and interference on behalf of TrumpThe new measures underscore the depth of those concerns, as the company has sought to use disinformation to interfere in this year’s election.
“Today’s announcement highlights the lengths some foreign governments will go to to undermine our democratic institutions,” the State Department said. “But these foreign governments should also know that the United States will not tolerate malign foreign actions that deliberately seek to interfere and undermine free and fair elections.”
The State Department said it had designated several Russian state media officials as “foreign envoys” and was offering cash rewards for providing the U.S. government with information about foreign election interference.
It also announced that it would add Russian news agencies and their subsidiaries RIA Novosti, RT, TV Novosti, Raptorly and Sputnik to the list of foreign missions, which will require these companies to register with the U.S. government and disclose their assets and personnel in the United States.
In a speech last month, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said: Russia remains the biggest threat She accused Putin and his proxies of “targeting specific voter groups and voters in battleground states to manipulate the outcomes of presidential and congressional elections” and that Russia is “attempting to engage ignorant Americans on social media to push a narrative that advances Russian interests,” she said.
She echoed similar sentiments on Thursday, saying at an Aspen Institute event that threats from foreign influence are more diverse and aggressive than in years past.
“It is more diverse and aggressive because it involves more actors from more countries than ever before and operates in a more polarized world than ever before, and it is driven and accelerated by technologies such as AI. That is what we have made clear with the law enforcement action we conducted today,” she said.
Much of the concern surrounding Russia has centered on cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns designed to influence the November election.
These tactics include using state-run media outlets like RT to push anti-American messaging and content, and using a network of fake websites and social media accounts to spread that message and inject it into Americans’ online conversations.Typically, these networks focus on polarizing political topics such as: Immigrationcrime or The war in Gaza.
In many cases, Americans may not realize that the content they see online is originating or disseminated by the Kremlin.
Kremlin-linked groups are increasingly outsourcing some of the work of creating their digital propaganda, while also hiring Russian marketing and communications firms to cover their tracks, the officials told reporters in a briefing.
The two Russian companies were targeted in new U.S. sanctions announced in March. Officials said the two companies Created fake websites and social media profiles To spread Kremlin disinformation.
But the ultimate goal is to get Americans to spread Russian disinformation without questioning its origins: People are much more likely to trust and repost information that appears to come from a domestic source, the officials said. Fake websites Designed to mimic US news outlets and AI-generated social media profiles are just two of the ways this is done.
A message left with the Russian Embassy was not immediately returned.
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Associated Press writers Dan Merica and Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington, Ali Swenson in New York and Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.