US authorities accuse Russia of election manipulation
US authorities took coordinated action against individuals linked to the Russian government and accused them of influencing elections.
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has charged two Russian nationals with directing a $10 million campaign to influence the 2024 election through online platforms that inundated millions of Americans with disinformation, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday.
The complaint focused on RT, the Russian state-run media network that was dropped by American distributors after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The company funded a $10 million campaign through a Tennessee firm to spread Russian disinformation to U.S. social media influencers and promote divisions in U.S. politics, Garland said.
The department also seized 32 internet domains that Russians used to spread misinformation about the election as part of a program called “doppelgänger,” Garland said. The domains were designed to look like legitimate U.S. news organizations but were instead filled with Russian propaganda that could be picked up and shared by U.S. influencers.
“The American people have a right to know when a foreign power is trying to exploit the free exchange of ideas in our country to spread its own propaganda,” Garland said. “After Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, RT’s editor-in-chief said the company had ‘built an entire empire of secret projects aimed at influencing public opinion among Western audiences.'”
Garland said influence campaigns have become more sophisticated through the use of artificial intelligence and, thanks to improved technology, faster and more productive.
“We’re just seeing more and more of it. It’s coming faster and faster,” Garland said. “That’s why it’s a bigger threat than ever.”
To give an idea of the audience reach, the charging documents say the US company posted 2,000 videos that were viewed a total of 16 million times on YouTube. Two of the company’s founders had 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers, respectively.
“It’s not about the embassy itself, but about the hidden hand of the Russian government,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
More: Russia wants Trump back in the White House. Iran doesn’t. Let’s start with the election hacking.
RT responded with derision: “Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections,” the media company told Reuters.
Garland responded that the government takes the threats seriously.
“This is deadly serious and we will treat it accordingly,” Garland said.
Two Russia-based RT employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, also known as Kostya, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, also known as Lena, were charged with conspiracy to launder money and violating the law on registration of foreign agents. They remain at large.
“The Department will not tolerate foreign efforts to illegally manipulate American public opinion by sowing discord and division,” said Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
Other departments also took action against RT and Russian individuals.
As part of Moscow’s coordinated efforts to recruit American influencers for its malign campaign, the Russian Finance Ministry imposed sanctions on ten individuals, including RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonovna Simonyan, and two companies.
The US State Department has issued a new policy restricting visas to individuals acting on behalf of Kremlin-backed media organizations. The department says the measure is designed to combat “nefarious, covert influence activities” rather than the content of their reporting.
The ministry also designated five Russian companies operating in the United States as foreign missions actively controlled by the Russian government, requiring them to name their employees and disclose their real estate holdings. The companies are Rossiya Segodnya and its subsidiaries RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly and Sputnik.
“This is the most comprehensive measure we have ever seen to disrupt efforts by a foreign government to interfere in a U.S. election,” Brandon Van Grack, who served as lead prosecutor in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, told USA TODAY. “Clearly the goal is not only to disrupt the interference, but also to minimize the impact on the upcoming election.”
Government officials have long warned that, in addition to China and Iran, Russia will also try to influence the elections.
The trend is not new.
Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller investigated interference in the 2016 election and accused Russians of hacking Democrats’ computers and releasing information about candidate Hillary Clinton.
“The Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a comprehensive and systematic manner,” the Mueller report states.
While the intelligence community concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the influence campaign and developed a clear preference for a Trump presidency, Mueller’s investigation did not conclude that Trump’s campaign colluded or coordinated with the Russian government.
“Russia’s goals were to undermine public confidence in the democratic process in the United States, denigrate Secretary of State Clinton, and damage her electability and potential presidency,” the intelligence report said. “We also believe that Putin and the Russian government have developed a clear preference for President-elect Trump.”
In July 2016, Russian agents began intercepting emails from Clinton’s private office – the same day Trump discussed her emails. “Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you can find the 30,000 missing emails,” Trump said.
Monaco warned in a speech last month that Putin “and his proxies are using increasingly sophisticated techniques in their interference operations.”
“They are targeting specific groups of voters and voters from swing states to manipulate the results of the presidential and congressional elections,” she said.
