U.S. officials on Wednesday announced a series of measures, including criminal prosecutions and financial penalties, to respond to attempts by Russia to interfere in the U.S. election.
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Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday that charges have been filed against two executives of Russian media outlet RT.
The two individuals also appear on a financial sanctions list published simultaneously by the US Treasury Department, which includes 10 individuals, including six RT executives, including its editor-in-chief Margarita Simonian, as well as two Russian NGOs.
The State Department has announced visa restrictions on RT’s parent company and other subsidiaries, and offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on interference in the US elections.
“RT and its employees, including the two defendants, implemented a nearly $10 million scheme to fund a Tennessee-based company responsible for publishing and disseminating content deemed favorable to the Russian government,” Garland said at a news conference.
In addition to these charges, “the Justice Department is seizing 32 Internet domain names used by the Russian government and Russian state-sponsored actors to engage in a clandestine campaign to interfere in our country’s elections and influence their outcome,” he added.
“Today we uncover two illegal and clandestine Russian influence operations targeting the American people,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“Since noon today, we have seized these sites, taken them offline, and made it clear to the world what they are: Russian attempts to interfere in our elections and influence our society,” he added.
The United States has accused Russia of trying to influence the outcome of American elections since the 2016 presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton.
In May, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned of the growing number of foreign powers seeking to influence the November presidential election, but said the country had never been more prepared to thwart such attempts.
Among these powers, the most important are “Russia, China, and Iran,” she listed, specifying that “Russia continues to constitute the most active foreign threat” to the American elections.
