RUSSIAN CHARGED WITH U.S. INFLUENCE OPERATION

Ionov allegedly used American groups to spread propaganda

Federal authorities charged a Russian man Friday with a years-long malign influence campaign targeting American politics — alleging that he used American groups in Florida, Georgia and California to sow discord and push pro-Russia propaganda.

Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, who lives in Moscow, worked for nearly eight years with Russian officials to fund and direct the U.S. groups, according to the indictment filed in Florida. The 24-page indictment does not name the groups but charges that Ionov also advised the campaigns of two unidentified political candidates in Florida.

Ionov “allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning U.S. political groups and U.S. citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s national security division, said.

In 2017 and 2019, Ionov allegedly monitored and supported the campaigns of two Americans running for local office, identified in court papers only as Unindicted CoConspirator-3 and Unindicted Co-Conspirator-4. Before the 2019 primary, Ionov allegedly wrote to a Russian official that he had been “consulting every week” on one campaign. After one of the candidates advanced to the general election, a Russian intelligence officer allegedly wrote to Ionov that “our election campaign is kind of unique” and asked, “Are we the first in history?” Ionov later sent the intelligence officer details about the election, referring to that candidate as the one “whom we supervise.”

In 2016, according to authorities, Ionov paid for the St. Petersburg group to conduct a four-city protest tour in support of a “Petition on Crime of Genocide Against African People in the United States” — a document the group had previously submitted to the United Nations at Ionov’s behest.

Charging documents did not identify the group, but officials familiar with the case said it was an organization known as Uhuru House, which is run by the African People’s Socialist Party. Uhuru House did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

FBI Special Agent in Charge David Walker said at a news conference Friday that the case includes “some of the most egregious and blatant violations that we’ve seen by the Russian government in order to destabilize and undermine trust in American democracy . ... The Russian intelligence threat is continuing and unrelenting.”

Officials said they were executing search warrants Friday to gather more evidence against Ionov, the only person charged in the case so far.

U.S. authorities say Ionov is the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, which is funded by the Russian government. He allegedly used the group to provide money and instructions to American political groups and instructed them on behalf of the Russian intelligence agency FSB.

“Secret foreign government efforts to influence American elections and political groups threaten our democracy by spreading misinformation, distrust and mayhem,” Kenneth Polite Jr., head of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement.

In 2015, Ionov allegedly paid for the leader of the group in St. Petersburg to travel to Moscow. For the next seven years, Ionov “exercised direction and control over senior members” of the group, according to the indictment.

Ionov is also accused of directing and controlling an unidentified political group in California that advocated for that state’s secession from the United States. In 2018, according to authorities, Ionov provided financial support for the group’s protest at the state Capitol in Sacramento, and tried to persuade the leader of the group to physically enter the governor’s office.

He is also accused of directing the efforts of a group based in Atlanta, paying in 2022 for members of the group to travel to San Francisco to protest at the headquarters of a social media company that had restricted posts supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Ionov went so far as to provide designs for signs used at the protest, authorities said.

He is charged with conspiring to have U.S. citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government.