Security News > 2023 > April > US citizens charged with pushing pro-Kremlin disinfo, election interference
Four US citizens have been accused of working on behalf of the Russian government to push pro-Kremlin propaganda and unduly influence elections in Florida.
The indictment follows earlier charges last year [PDF] against Moscow resident Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, two unnamed Russian Federal Security Service agents, and four unnamed Americans for their roles in recruiting US political groups to sow discord and division among voters, and push, among other fringe ideologies, California's secession from the US. It's claimed this same group of FSB agents also funded and directed the political campaign of a particular candidate for office in St Petersburg, Florida, in 2019, we're told.
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Ionov, Sukhodolov, Popov, Yeshitela, Hess, Nevel, and Romain are charged with conspiring to have American citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government within the US - without providing prior notification to the Attorney General, as required by law.
In a separate case, the US Department of Justice unsealed a criminal complaint charging Russian national Natalia Burlinova, president of diplomatic non-profit PICREADI, with conspiring with an FSB officer to act as an illegal agent of Russia in the US. According to court documents [PDF] Burlinova recruited US citizens from academic and research institutions to travel to Russia to participate in a so-called public diplomacy program called "Meeting Russia," because that's not at all creepy-sounding.
The complaint claims that the FSB provided funding and other support for Burlinova's efforts to advance Russian interests in the US, and in exchange, Burlinova provided the FSB officer with info about American citizens who were recruited to attend her programs, including their résumés, passport information, photographs, and analyses of their views toward Russia.