Radio Free Europe 7/29/2022
U.S. authorities have charged a Russian national with recruiting political groups in the United States to sow discord, spread pro-Moscow propaganda, and interfere with U.S. elections.
The Justice Department said on July 29 that Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov has been named in an indictment charging him with working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Federal Security Service (FSB) on a “foreign malign influence campaign” that lasted from at least December 2014 until March 2022.
Ionov and his Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR) were simultaneously designated on July 29 by the U.S. Treasury Department for sanctions in connection with American claims of Russian interference in U.S. elections.
AGMR's English-language website claims it is a sociopolitical movement that opposes “certain aspects of the globalization process” and seeks to stop “manifestations” of the so-called “new world order,” the Treasury Department said.
AGMR has maintained connections with anti-establishment groups in the United States and other countries, holding conferences and protests in opposition to U.S. policy, according to the department. AGMR has received funding from Russia’s National Charity Fund, a trust created by Russian President Vladimir Putin that gathers money from Russia’s state-owned companies and oligarchs.
The criminal charge against Ionov, a citizen of Moscow, was filed in federal court in Florida, one of the states in which the Justice Department said Ionov made contact with a political group to carry out the foreign malign influence campaign.
“As court documents show, Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning U.S. political groups and U.S. citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
More:
https://www.rferl.org/a/united-states-russia-sanctions-election-interference/31965783.html
