The Justice Department announced actions Wednesday it has taken to counter what it called Russian attempts to affect elections in the US and other nations. The steps include charging two employees of the Russian state-owned media outlet RT, the Hill reports, and neutralizing 32 web domains used for the propaganda campaign. "As of noon today, we've seized those sites, rendered them inoperable, and made clear to the world what they are: Russian attempts to interfere in our elections and influence our society," FBI Director Christopher Wray said.
The influence campaigns, which are informally called "Doppelganger" by US officials, use sites with web addresses slightly different from those of legitimate US news outlets and fills them with pro-Russian content. The affidavit says the Russian campaign also hired worldwide influencers, bought ads on social media, and created fake social media profiles posing as Americans to spread the propaganda, per Axios. The two Russian nationals were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering in a $10 million scheme to spread the content while hiding its source, per NPR. They're still at large.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Russian President Vladimir Putin's inner circle was behind the influence campaign, which also sought to build support for the invasion of Ukraine. "The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power is attempting to exploit our country's free exchange of ideas in order to send around its own propaganda," Garland said at a meeting of the Election Threats Task Force. RT answered the accusations with joking comments such as "Ha!" Garland said it's not a joking matter. "This is deadly serious and we are going to treat it accordingly," he said. (More US-Russia relations stories.)
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