U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the start of a meeting of the Justice Department’s Election Threat Task Force at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC on September 4, 2024.
Robert Schmidt Afp | Getty Images
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced sanctions targeting Russian government-backed efforts to manipulate American opinion ahead of the 2024 election.
These alleged efforts include the use of RT, the Russian-backed English-language media network, to sway US opinion.
Senior RT editors were targeted in Wednesday’s actions, and two RT employees were charged Manhattan Federal Court for allegedly secretly funding and directing a US company that released thousands of videos to advance Russian interests, the Justice Department announced.
Those employees, Russian nationals Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27, remain at large. They are accused of funneling nearly $10 million to publish RT-curated content through a Tennessee company.
The Justice Department said it was seizing 32 Internet domains “used in Russian government-directed malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as ‘Doppelganger,’ in violation of US anti-money laundering and criminal trademark laws.”
An unidentified Russia Today presenter prepares to go on air at the RT TV studio in Moscow, June 8, 2018.
Yuri Kadobnov | Afp | Getty Images
Several Russian companies, operating under the direction and control of President Vladimir Putin’s administration, “used these sectors, among other things, to covertly spread Russian government propaganda aimed at reducing international support for Ukraine, strengthening pro-Russian policies and interests. and influencing voters in US and foreign elections, including the 2024 US presidential election,” the DOJ said.
“The American people have a right to know when a foreign power attempts to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas to send its own propaganda,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, the US Treasury Department announced it had designated 10 individuals and two entities for their involvement in Moscow’s “malicious influence efforts” aimed at the upcoming US election.
The people appointed were RT editor-in-chief Margarite Simonova Simonyan, deputy editor-in-chief Elizaveta Yuryevna Brodskaia and Anton Sergeyvich Anisimov, another deputy editor-in-chief of RT.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said the State Department is taking three actions “to address Russia’s state-sponsored covert influence operations, the department is acting to prevent malicious actors from using Kremlin-backed media as cover for carrying out such covert influence activities’.
These actions included the introduction of a new visa restriction policy for RT’s parent company Rossiya Segodnya and other affiliates RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Sputnik and Ruptly.
Blinken said the State Department also found these entities subject to the US Foreign Missions Act as they are allegedly effectively controlled by the Russian government.
In July, US intelligence officials told NBC News that Russia is trying to undermine President Joe Biden’s campaign to win re-election this fall.
Weeks later Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him at the top of 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 prop up his candidacy over then-Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
When NBC asked RT’s press office about news of the actions Wednesday, RT responded: “1. Ha! 2. Hahahaha! 3. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.”
“4. In 2016 he called and wants his clichés back,” RT’s press office wrote. “5. Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and RT meddling in US elections 6. We have to earn our Kremlin paycheck somehow 7. Somewhere Secretary Clinton is sad it’s not because of her.”
