U.S. officials on Wednesday unveiled a series of measures, including criminal charges and sanctions, to respond to attempts by Russia to interfere in the U.S. election.
US Attorney General Merrick Garland has announced two separate actions by his office: the seizure of 32 domain names used in a campaign to influence the outcome of the US presidential election conducted under the authority of the Russian presidential administration, as well as the prosecution of two executives of the Russian media outlet RT.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was aware of the election interference operations, the White House said.
U.S. officials have not explicitly specified which side they benefited. However, U.S. intelligence had concluded that Russian interference occurred in 2016 and 2020 to favor Republican candidate Donald Trump, something Trump categorically denies and Moscow has denied.
Asked about this at a press conference, Mr. Garland, the attorney general in the outgoing Democratic administration, said only that according to intelligence analysis, Russia’s preferences had not changed since the last election.
RT in the line of fire
The Treasury Department also announced that it is sanctioning two Russian NGOs and 10 individuals, including six RT executives, including its editor-in-chief Margarita Simonian and the two indicted individuals.
The State Department, for its part, has imposed visa restrictions on the media group that owns RT, Rossia Segodnia, as well as other subsidiaries of the company, and has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information on interference in the US elections.
RT and its employees, including the two defendants, operated a nearly $10 million scheme to fund a Tennessee-based company that published and disseminated content deemed favorable to the Russian government.
A quote from Merrick Garland, Attorney General of the United States
Today we are uncovering two illegal and clandestine Russian influence operations against the American people, summarized the director of the American federal police (FBI), 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.
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Margarita Simonian (right) is the editor-in-chief of Russian state media outlet RT.
The reality is that Russia has been interfering in our society and trying to sow discord for decades. What’s new is that they have more tools to do it with the advancement of technology, he said, citing social media and artificial intelligence.
RT channel ridiculed the latest American accusations in response to a CNN report a few hours before the official announcements, evoking the return of the hackneyed clichés of 2016.
The United States has accused Russia of trying to influence the outcome of American elections since the 2016 presidential election, won by Donald Trump over former Democratic Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In May, US Intelligence Director Avril Haines warned of the growing number of foreign powers seeking to influence the 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.
