Russia is trying to meddle with the US election again, Biden administration says

The Russian government is once again trying to influence the US presidential election, the Biden administration says.

In a series of actions across the government on Wednesday, several agencies sought to crack down on alleged disinformation campaigns targeting the November election. The government alleges that Russian actors operated websites and social media accounts that spread propaganda furthering Russian interests and even created fake social media personas to comment on posts to make their efforts more believable. In one of the alleged influence campaigns, Russian-controlled media outlet RT financed a Tennessee company that gained millions of views on videos posted to YouTube, according to the US. The announcements came as the Justice Department hosted a task force meeting on election threats.

In one of the alleged operations, the Russian government directed Russian companies to spread propaganda across several websites in an effort to reduce support for Ukraine, bolster Russian interests, and influence voters in the US presidential election, according to the DOJ. The US government announced an “ongoing seizure” of 32 internet domains connected to the influence campaign known as “Doppelganger,” which it says violates US money laundering and trademark laws.

The influence campaign, which was allegedly directed by members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, created media brands or closely mimicked existing ones to spread Russian government propaganda, according to the US. They also allegedly created fake social media personas of non-Russian citizens to post comments.

“This seizure illustrates vividly what the U.S. government and private sector partners have warned for months: the Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories and amplify disinformation directed at the American public,” DOJ National Security Division chief Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.

In a separate action, the DOJ accused two employees of the Russian state-controlled media outlet RT of conspiring to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and commit money laundering. In a newly unsealed indictment, the DOJ alleged that RT financed a “Tennessee-based online content creation company” with nearly $10 million to post videos across TikTok, X, and YouTube. On YouTube alone, that unnamed company allegedly gained nearly 16 million views on its videos posted since 2023. The videos vary in their perspectives, according to the DOJ, but touch on topics like immigration and inflation, and “most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States.”

The Biden administration used Wednesday’s announcements to warn malicious actors against interfering with US elections. “The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas in order to covertly further its own propaganda efforts,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement alongside the announcement of the RT employees’ indictment, “and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing.”