Russian charged with using US groups to spread propaganda

WASHINGTON — A Russian operative under the supervision of one of the Kremlin’s main intelligence services has been charged with recruiting political groups in the United States to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including during the invasion of Ukraine, the Justice Department said Friday. “As court documents show, Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning U.S. political groups and U.S. citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the head of the Justice Department’s national security division, said in a statement. Separately on Friday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Ionov, accusing him of efforts to “manipulate and destabilize the United States and its allies and partners.” The indictment does not identify by name any of the organizations Ionov recruited, but it does describe one of them as a St. Petersburg, Florida group whose leaders were aware that Ionov and his group were agents of a foreign government. Members of the Uhuru movement first met Ionov in Russia when they were invited to an anti-globalization conference, and Anai said she also had been in contact with Ionov via email and also a webinar after Russia invaded Ukraine since “we were getting one side of the story on Russian and Ukraine.” Officials alleged Friday that Ionov sought to inject himself into local politics in by supporting members of the group for office. According to the indictment, he sent news coverage about the California secession movement to one of his FSB contacts and said that the officer had asked for “turmoil” and “there you go.” More recently, prosecutors say, Ionov paid for the travel of members of an unnamed Georgia group to fly from Atlanta to San Francisco to join a protest outside a social media company in California that had placed content restrictions on posts supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.