US Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the beginning of a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force at the Justice Department in Washington, DC on September 4, 2024.
Roberto Schmidt | Afp | Getty Images
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced sanctions targeting Russian government-backed efforts to manipulate American opinion leading up to the 2024 election.
Those alleged efforts include the use of RT, the English-language media network backed by Russia, to influence U.S. opinion.
Senior editors at RT were targeted in Wednesday’s actions, and two RT employees were indicted in Manhattan federal court for allegedly covertly funding and directing an American company that published thousands of videos to further Russian interests, the Department of Justice announced.
Those employees, Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, remain at large. They are accused of deploying nearly $10 million to publish the RT-curated content through a Tennessee company.
The DOJ said it was seizing 32 Internet domains “used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as ‘Doppelganger,’ in violation of U.S. money laundering and criminal trademark laws.”
An unidentified Russia Today anchor prepares to go on the air in the RT TV studio in Moscow, June 8, 2018.
Yuri Kadobnov | Afp | Getty Images
Several Russian companies, operating under the direction and control of the administration of President Vladimir Putin, “used these domains, among others, to covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024 Presidential Election,” the DOJ said.
“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,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference.
At the same time Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced that it had designated 10 individuals and two entities for their involvement in “Moscow’s malign influence efforts” targeting the upcoming American elections.
The individuals designated included RT’s editor–in-chief Margarite Simonova Simonyan, deputy editor-in-chief Elizaveta Yuryevna Brodskaia, and Anton Sergeyvich Anisimov, another RT deputy editor-in-chief.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department was taking three actions “yo counter Russia’s state-backed covert influence operations, the Department is acting to hinder malicious actors from using Kremlin-supported media as a cover to conduct such covert influence activities.”
Those actions included introducing a new visa restriction policy on RT’s parent company Rossiya Segodnya, and other subsidiaries RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Sputnik and Ruptly.
Blinken said the State Department also determined that those entities were subject to the U.S. Foreign Missions Act as they are allegedly effectively controlled by the Russian government.
In July, U.S. intelligence officials told NBC News that Russia was trying to undermine the campaign of President Joe Biden to win reelection this fall.
Biden weeks later dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him atop the Democratic ticket.
Harris is set to face Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and former president, in November.
Trump was elected to the White House in 2016. Investigations later found that there was a coordinated effort by Russia to support his candidacy over the then-Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
When NBC asked RT’s press office about news of the actions Wednesday, RT replied: “1. Ha! 2. Hahahaha! 3. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
“4. 2016 called and it wants its clichés back,” the RT press office wrote. “5. Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT’s interference in the US elections 6. We gotta earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow 7. Somewhere Secretary Clinton is sad that it’s not because of her.”
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