This strange press release from the U.S. Department of Justice reports on a superseding indictment filed in Tampa, Florida, which charges four US citizens and three Russian nationals with conspiring to conduct a foreign malign influence campaign in the United States on behalf of the Russian government and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). The indictment alleges that the Russian defendants recruited, funded, and directed US political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda. Additionally, the intelligence officers covertly funded and directed candidates for local office within the United States.
The indictment also accuses Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, of being the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization headquartered in Moscow and funded by the Russian government. Ionov allegedly utilized AGMR to carry out Russia’s malign influence campaign. Ionov’s influence efforts were allegedly directed and supervised by Moscow-based FSB officers, including indicted defendants Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov.
The superseding indictment alleges that Ionov, Sukhodolov, and Popov conspired to directly and substantially influence democratic elections in the United States by clandestinely funding and directing the political campaign of a particular candidate for local office in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2019. The superseding indictment alleges that Popov expressly referred to this effort on behalf of the FSB as “our election campaign,” and Ionov referring to the candidate as the “candidate whom we supervise.” Ionov and Popov allegedly intended that this election interference plot would extend beyond the 2019 local election cycle in St. Petersburg and subsequently discussed that the “USA Presidential election” was the FSB’s “main topic of the year.”
Moreover, from at least November 2014 until July 2022, Ionov allegedly engaged in a years-long foreign malign influence campaign targeting the United States. As part of the campaign, Ionov allegedly recruited members of political groups within the United States to participate in the influence campaign and act as agents of Russia in the United States. The superseding indictment includes charges against four individuals associated with the African People’s Socialist Party, Black Hammer, and a political group in California.
In a separate case out of the District of Columbia, a criminal complaint was unsealed charging Russian national Natalia Burlinova with conspiring with an FSB officer to act as an illegal agent of Russia in the United States. The Department of Justice officials involved in the case emphasize that the prosecution of this criminal conduct is essential to protecting the American public when foreign governments seek to inject themselves into the American political process. They also stress that the department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt US elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are US citizens or foreign individuals abroad.
This comes just days after Russia detained American Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich. It seems Ukraine, Russia, and the United States have created quite the tit for tat tinder box.
