U.S. to Accuse Russia of Using Its State Media to Influence 2024 Election

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American spy agencies have assessed that the Kremlin favors former President Donald J. Trump, seeing him as skeptical of U.S. support for Ukraine.

An RT broadcast in Moscow in 2019. The United States has said that Russian intelligence agencies have been using the state-owned broadcaster to spread disinformation.Credit...Misha Friedman/Getty Images
Sept. 4, 2024Updated 2:07 p.m. ET

The United States on Wednesday announced a broad effort to push back on Russian influence campaigns in the 2024 election, trying to curb the Kremlin’s use of state-run media and fake news sites to sway American voters.

The actions include sanctions, indictments and seizing of web domains that U.S. officials say the Kremlin uses to spread propaganda and disinformation about Ukraine, which Russia invaded more than two years ago.

Attorney General Merrick B. Garland on Wednesday announced actions by the Justice Department, including the indictment of two Russian employees of RT, the state-owned broadcaster, who used a company in Tennessee to spread content, and the takedown of a Russian malign influence campaign known as Doppelganger.

“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power engages in political activities or seeks to influence public discourse,” Mr. Garland said.

The Justice Department’s actions are part of a larger federal effort to push back on the Kremlin’s effort to influence the vote. The Treasury Department is set to announce a set of sanctions on Wednesday, and the State Department is set to announce new actions against Russians involved in election influence efforts.

The Treasury Department sanctioned ANO Dialog, a Russian nonprofit that helps run the Doppleganger network, as well as the editor in chief of RT, Margarita S. Simonyan, and her deputies.


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