Getty ImagesThe United States has indicted and sanctioned Russian state media executives and restricted Kremlin-linked broadcasters, accusing Moscow of waging a broad campaign to interfere with the presidential election.
The Justice, State and Treasury departments announced coordinated actions Wednesday to “aggressively counter” the alleged operations.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has accused state broadcaster RT, formerly Russia Today, of paying $10 million to a Tennessee company to “create and distribute content to the American public containing hidden messages from the Russian government.”
RT director Margarita Simonyan is among 10 people sanctioned for allegedly trying to undermine “public trust in our institutions.” RT has denied any involvement.
Mr Garland said Moscow wanted to achieve a “preferred outcome” in the race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said the Russian program was aimed at “reducing international support for Ukraine, strengthening pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters here in the United States.”
A Treasury official, meanwhile, said RT and other Russian state media outlets had engaged in a “nefarious campaign to covertly recruit unwitting American influencers to support their malign activity.”
The Biden administration’s response so far includes:
- Accusing two Moscow-based RT executives – Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, 31, and Elena Afanasyeva, 27 – of paying content creators on U.S. soil to “spread pro-Russian propaganda and disinformation” to American audiences;
- Sanction two entities and ten individuals, including Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT, for “activities aimed at undermining public trust in our institutions”;
- Visa restrictions for Kremlin-backed media workers;
- Seizure of 32 Internet domain names used to “covertly promote false AI-generated narratives” targeting specific demographics and regions of the United States on social media;
- Designate Rossiya Segodnya and five of its subsidiaries (RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly and Sputnik) as “foreign missions,” requiring them to report information about their personnel to the U.S. government;
- Offering a $10 million reward for information on hackers associated with the Russian group Russian Angry Hackers Did It (RaHDit).
Much of the Kremlin’s disinformation efforts are directed and funded by RT, Kirby said.
“RT is no longer just a Kremlin propaganda organ,” he said. “It is being used to promote covert Russian influence actions.”
The state media outlet mocked the US government’s accusations, saying in a statement to the BBC that “2016 has called and wants to return to its clichés.”
“Three things are certain in life: death, taxes, and RT interference in the US elections.”
The criminal indictments against Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva do not identify by name the Tennessee-based content creation company they used.
But the court filing’s description of a “network of heterodox commentators who focus on Western political and cultural issues” matches the self-description on the website of a media outlet called Tenet Media.
Tenet posts thousands of English-language videos on social media and promotes well-known right-wing commentators Benny Johnson, Tim Pool and Dave Rubin as its “talents.”
Pool said on Twitter/X that he and other commenters had been “deceived” and were victims themselves.
The company has been contacted for comment.
U.S. officials warn that a growing number of foreign adversaries have tried to interfere in their elections since Russia’s efforts in 2016.
In June, a group of hackers linked to the Iranian government successfully hacked Donald Trump’s campaign and leaked internal documents.
A month later, the Justice Department announced the seizure of two domain names and the search of nearly 1,000 social media accounts operated by Russian actors to “create a farm of AI-enhanced social media bots that spread disinformation.”
Researchers also uncovered a growing Chinese influence operation aimed at infiltrating and influencing American political conversations on social media.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged that his country would not interfere in the U.S. election during a summit with President Joe Biden last November.
Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said Tuesday that the United States can “absolutely expect foreign adversaries” to try to “undermine American confidence in our democracy … and sow partisan discord.”
“That is why it is up to all of us not to let our foreign adversaries succeed.”
Eight years ago, Russia waged a sophisticated campaign that involved hacking the Democratic National Committee and releasing stolen documents to WikiLeaks in an effort to harm Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Many Democrats believe the operation contributed to Trump’s ultimate victory in November.
U.S. politicians and intelligence officials have since concluded that the operation was directly ordered by Vladimir Putin, the Russian president.
In 2018, twelve Russian military intelligence officers were charged with orchestrating the operation, and federal arrest warrants were issued for them.
