US Elections: Biden Administration Imposes Sanctions, Charges Russians for Interference

As Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference, U.S. law enforcement uncovered and disrupted a large-scale election influence campaign, including by secretly paying American influencers and commentators to spread Russian propaganda. Prosecutors have charged two RT employees, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, in the case.

Using false names, the Russians paid a total of $10 million to an unnamed company registered in Tennessee to publish content created by RT that was consistent with the narrative promoted by Russia and to pay American influencers to spread the content. According to Garland, the commentators did not know that the money they were receiving came from Russian authorities. Garland also cited uncovered internal RT documents in which the channel's head, Margarita Simonyan, said her goal was to create “an entire empire of secret projects aimed at shaping public opinion in the West.” “We now know that RT, formerly known as Russia Today, has gone beyond being simply a media organization. RT contracted with a private company to pay unwitting Americans millions of dollars to spread the Kremlin's narrative in order to influence the election in USA and undermine democracy. What's more, the RT leadership has direct, conscious knowledge of this endeavor – the US Secretary of State concluded Antony BlinkenHis ministry has officially designated RT and other Russian state media outlets, including RIA Novosti, Sputnik and Ruptly, as “foreign missions,” meaning they will be required to disclose all of their U.S.-based personnel and assets to the State Department. The ministry is also offering a $10 million reward for information on Russian election interference, including Russian hackers in the area.

Garland also announced that his department had seized 32 domain names used by Russia to spread disinformation online as part of the previously known Operation Doppelganger. The operation was first identified in France in 2022, but it targeted many countries, including the U.S. Two Russian organizations, Social Design Agency and Dialog, acting on behalf of the Kremlin, used AI and “deep fakes”, social media and portals posing as well-known publications or sites that look like real media, to promote false and manipulated information aimed at discouraging Western societies from supporting Ukraineand also to influence the American elections. The US Treasury (Finance) has imposed sanctions on 10 individuals and two entities involved in these activities, including RT chief Margarita Simonyan. Individuals and companies associated with Doppelganger were already subject to sanctions in March of this year. Garland reminded on Wednesday that Russia is not the only country trying to interfere in the upcoming elections. Earlier, US services revealed similar activities Iranincluding hacking into the email accounts of election campaign staff Donald TrumpThey also run their own network of fake social media accounts. China.