Washington claims that Russia is again trying to interfere in the American elections.
The US authorities declare that Moscow is using the traditional tools for the election of the head of the White House, spreading disinformation through Kremlin-funded media and various websites in order to deceive and mislead American users.
The Kremlin-initiated campaign is being led by RT, formerly Russia Today, the US Department of Justice announced.
“In the framework of the campaign to influence the 2024 US presidential elections, Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including Sergey Kiriyenko, directed public relations companies to promote disinformation and state-sponsored stories,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced yesterday, presenting a special report by US law enforcement. .
Against the backdrop of evidence of a Russian disinformation campaign in the American audience, the US State Department has included the RT TV company headed by Margarita Simonyan, considered the mouthpiece of the Kremlin, and its five sister media companies, including Ria Novosti, Sputnik, and Raptly, under the Foreign Agents Act. on the list of affected organizations, tightening the conditions of their activities in the US territory.
Sanctions against RT and its longtime leader Simonyan
The Ministry of Finance also imposed sanctions on the Russian multilingual TV company, its long-time leader Simonyan and a group of his subordinates.
A criminal case was initiated against both employees of the TV company, on charges of violating the law on foreign agents and money laundering.
31-year-old Konstantin Kalashnikov, manager of RT’s digital projects, and 27-year-old Elena Afanaseva from the media projects department, according to the indictment, paid $10 million to a company through which the content received from Russia was to be delivered to the American audience. By the way, the Russians intended to involve American influencers in that disinformation campaign.
The US authorities claim that the Kremlin wants Donald Trump to win the November elections, because it is the Republican candidate who opposes providing support to Ukraine, which is defending itself from Russia’s attack.
Vladimir Putin claimed that Moscow supports Kamala Harris
Today, President Vladimir Putin indirectly responded to Washington’s claims and accusations, claiming that Moscow, as a supporter of Biden, supports Kamala Harris following the exhortation of the outgoing head of the White House. The head of the Kremlin expressed his opinion that the contagious laughter of the US vice president suggests that “everything is fine” with him.
“Our favorite, so to speak, was the current president, Mr. Biden. But his participation in the campaign has been canceled and he has advised all his supporters to support Ms Harris. And we will do so,” declared Putin.
“We observe increasing Iranian aggressive activity during these elections”
US Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that Russia is not the only country that is trying to influence the political and electoral processes of America.
“We are seeing increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election,” Garland noted.
This year alone, at least four high-ranking American officials have been targeted by US law enforcement for their ties to foreign countries.
Eric Adams and Turkey
The connection between New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Erdogan’s administration raised suspicions as early as the 2021 election campaign. Investigators are now trying to find out whether the construction company, which has ties to both the Turkish government and donors to the Adams campaign, financed the political activities of the leader of the largest American city.
Henry Cuellar and Azerbaijan
According to the US prosecutor’s office, Texas congressman Henry Cuellar and his wife promised the Azerbaijani authorities in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes received from Baku between 2014 and 2021 to influence aspects of American foreign policy that are directly related to Azerbaijan, in particular to carry out legislative activities in the interests of Baku. in initiatives related to the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
Menendez and Egypt
Influential US Senator Bob Menendez and his wife in a New York court last month were found guilty in carrying out activities in favor of the interests of Egypt. According to American federal prosecutors, the senator helped allocate billions of dollars in aid to Egypt from the US state budget in exchange for nearly half a million dollars in cash, gold bars, a luxury car and other gifts.
