The US Treasury Department on Wednesday announced sanctions against the leadership of the Russian propaganda channel RT, in particular its editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, and the hacker group RaHDit for interfering in the 2024 presidential election, the Treasury Department website reports, UNN reports.
Details
“RT used a shell company to conceal its own or the Russian government's involvement in content designed to influence US audiences,” the release said.
Earlier this year, RT executives reportedly began secretly recruiting unsuspecting American officials for their campaign to influence the country's presidential election, in addition to spreading fake news and disinformation.
It is noted that the sanctions were imposed on editor-in-chief Margarita Simonian and her two deputies, Yelyzaveta Brodska and Anton Anisimov. Also sanctioned were Deputy Director of English-language broadcasting Andriy Kiyashko, Digital Media Project Manager Konstantin Kalashnikov and his subordinate Olena Afanasyeva.
The U.S. Treasury Department noted that Anisimov was acting in the interests of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), and Afanasyeva was trying to interact with U.S. officials under false pretenses to recruit them.
The sanctions also target members of the pro-Kremlin hacker group RaHDit, consisting of current and former Russian intelligence officers: Alexei Garashchenko, Anastasia Yermoshkina, and Alexander Nezhentsev.
Meanwhile, sanctions are being imposed on the Russian autonomous non-profit organization (ANO) Dialog, which is linked to the Russian influence operation Doppleganger, and its subsidiary organization ANO Dialog Regions, as well as the head of both of these companies, Vladimir Tabak.
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