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The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday indicted three Russian security agents and four Americans on charges of conducting "a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States" on behalf of the Russian government.
A federal grand jury in the southern city of Tampa, Florida, alleged that Russian Federal Security Service agents recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered Moscow agents to "sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda." The indictment, replacing an earlier one, alleged that the Russian intelligence agents covertly funded and oversaw the political campaigns for a local office in the U.S.
"Russia's foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights - freedoms Russia denies its own citizens - to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States," Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said in a statement.
The indictment alleges that a group called the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia was founded by Moscow resident Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, one of the three Russians charged, and funded by the Russian government. The U.S. alleges that the Russian group carried out the malign influence campaign under the supervision of two others charged in the case, Federal Security Service agents Aleksey Borisovich Sukhodolov and Yegor Sergeyevich Popov.
The U.S. accused the three Russians of directing the campaign of an unnamed candidate for local office in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2019 and referred to the political aspirant as the "candidate whom we supervise," but intended its work to extend to the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Ionov allegedly recruited members of political groups within the United States, including the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement in Florida.
The four indicted Americans - Omali Yeshitela, Penny Joanne Hess, Jesse Nevel and Augustus C. Romain Jr. - have residences in St. Petersburg, and according to the Justice Department, all had ties to the African People's Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement.
The Justice Department said one focus of Ionov's alleged influence operation "was to create the appearance of American popular support for Russia's annexation of territories in Ukraine."