The Justice Department on Tuesday unveiled new charges against members of small separatist political groups accused of working with agents of the Russian government to influence a local Florida election with aspirations of extending those efforts to the 2020 presidential campaign.
The indictment expands a criminal case involving Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a Russian national accused of working with Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, agents to orchestrate a years-long influence campaign aimed at sowing discord in the US and interfering in American elections beginning in 2014.
The defendants wanted the effort to continue into 2020, prosecutors allege, but it is not clear from court documents whether they took any real action to affect the presidential election that year.
Separately, the Justice Department announced charges on Tuesday against a Russian national accused of recruiting Americans from US academic and research institutions into pro-Russian programs and sending information on US citizens to the Russian government.
Natalia Burlinova, a 39-year-old Russian citizen, has been charged with acting as an agent of the Russian government.
Ionov was originally charged in July with conspiring to have US citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government. The new indictment announced Tuesday includes four US citizens and two Russian nationals facing charges for allegedly participating in the plot.
“The Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda,” the Justice Department said in a statement. “The indicted intelligence officers, in particular, participated in covertly funding and directing candidates for local office within the United States.”
Ionov said in a statement to…
Read the full article here