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The US Department of Justice, the Department of State, and the Treasury took a slew of actions Wednesday aimed at curbing what they described as a sprawling Kremlin-backed campaign to influence the 2024 presidential election.
The Treasury announced sanctions targeting 10 people and two entities, including executives at RT, formerly Russia Today, a Moscow-funded news outlet. The Treasury said that beginning in 2024, RT “ began an effort to covertly recruit unwitting American influencers. RT used a front company to disguise its own involvement or the involvement of the Russian government.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice announced indictments Wednesday that alleged two Russians employed by RT — Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva — acted as covert foreign agents on behalf of Russia and committed money laundering as part of a scheme to influence the US election.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Together, the sanctions and charges lay out a scheme whereby RT employees funneled a Tennessee-based content creation company nearly $10 million to push pro-Russia content. Separately, the State Department designated media company Rossiya Segodnya and five subsidiaries — RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik — as “Foreign Missions,” and offered a $10 million reward for information on foreign interference in an American election.
Taken together, it’s the Biden administration’s most significant response yet to Russian influence operations, CNN wrote.
“The Russian government has long sought to sow discord and chaos in the United States… RT employees exploited our free and open press and targeted millions of Americans as unwitting victims of Russia’s psychological warfare,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen.
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RT and its associated media outlets were already on the Biden administration’s radar for pushing the Kremlin’s agenda. The Justice Department in July accused an RT employee of being involved in a scheme that used about 1,000 bot social media accounts to pose as US residents and spread disinformation about the Ukraine war.
US intelligence officials believe Russia’s current efforts may be designed to boost Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump’s chances of winning reelection, The New York Times reported, as Moscow sees the former president as more skeptical of continuing US support for Ukraine. However, The New York Times noted, that has led some, and “particularly Mr. Trump’s supporters,” to “see accusations that Russia is spreading disinformation as efforts to undermine their views and policy positions.”
The newly revealed campaign echoes the 2016 US election, when Russian actors were found to have hacked the Democratic National Committee and leaked documents in an effort to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
