A federal grand jury charged four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals with “working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States,” according to the Justice Department.
From The Hill’s Jared Gans: “The indictment adds on to a case that the DOJ has been pursuing against Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, the founder and president of a Moscow-based organization called the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia.”
Ionov was charged last summer with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as agents on behalf of Moscow.
The indictment alleges the Russian defendants “recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda,” the Justice Department said.
The Russian defendants are also accused of conspiring to influence an election for local office in St. Petersburg, Fla., in 2019.
All seven indicted individuals are charged with “conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government within the United States without providing prior notification to the Attorney General[.]”
Three of the indicted U.S. citizens are being charged with acting as agents of Russia without proper notification.
Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s National Security Division, said “Russia’s foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights – freedoms Russia denies its own citizens – to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States.”
Learn more about the indictment here
