--- title: U.S. Accuses Russia of Spreading Disinformation Before November Election | TIME description: The Biden administration announced wide-ranging actions Wednesday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation. canonical: https://time.com/video/YvkmUM3g/ og:title: U.S. Accuses Russia of Spreading Disinformation Before November Election og:description: The Biden administration announced wide-ranging actions Wednesday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation. og:url: https://time.com/video/YvkmUM3g/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YvkmUM3g/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Accuses Russia of Spreading Disinformation Before November Election twitter:description: The Biden administration announced wide-ranging actions Wednesday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YvkmUM3g/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * U.S. # U.S. Accuses Russia of Spreading Disinformation Before November Election > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: U.S. Accuses Russia of Spreading Disinformation Before November Election [Watch (HLS stream): U.S. Accuses Russia of Spreading Disinformation Before November Election](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YvkmUM3g.m3u8) (4:35)  _Published 2024-09-04. The Biden administration announced wide-ranging actions Wednesday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation._ --- Sep 4, 2024 9:20 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Russia Arrests Dual U.S. Citizen on Accusations of Treason](/video/XgnE6Oi8/) ### Russia Arrests Dual U.S. Citizen on Accusations of Treason [Now Vladimir Putin Is Accusing the U.S. of Meddling in Russia's Upcoming Presidential Election](/video/3giRoMua/) ### Now Vladimir Putin Is Accusing the U.S. of Meddling in Russia's Upcoming Presidential Election [Mattis Says U.S. 'Stands With Ukraine' and Accuses Russia of Menacing Europe](/video/Yaa3DpF9/) ### Mattis Says U.S. 'Stands With Ukraine' and Accuses Russia of Menacing Europe --- ## Transcript This morning, we unsealed an indictment in the Southern District of New York of Constantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afonasev, two Russian based employees of RT, a Russian state controlled media outlet. They are charged with conspiring to commit money laundering and to violate the Feign Agents Registration Act. In the wake of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, RT, which was then known as Russia today was dropped by its American distributors. The company ceased its formal operations in the United States, and the European Union, the UK, and Canada banned RTs broadcasting. But as RT itself has boasted, the government of Russia continued to use RT to direct disinformation and propaganda. In the wake of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine RTs editor and chief said the company had built an entire empire of covert projects designed to shape public opinion in Western audiences. We allege that as part of that effort, RT and its employees, including the defendants, implemented a nearly $10,000,000 scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government. To implement this scheme, the defendants directed the company to contract with US based social media influencers to share this content on their platforms. The subject matter and content of many of the videos published by the company are often consistent with Russia's interest in amplifying US domestic divisions in order to weaken US opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine. In a separate enforcement action, the Justice Department is seizing 32 Internet domains that the Russian government and the Russian sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country's elections. As alleged in our court filings, President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, including Sergi Kinko directed Russian Public Relations Companies to promote disinformation and state sponsored narratives as part of a program to influence the 2024 US presidential election. An internal planning document created by the Kremlin states that as a goal of the campaign is securing Russia's preferred outcome in the election. The Online infrastructure used by the Russian Public Relations Company, known as the Social Design Agency or SDA and related actors, included what are sometimes referred to as cyber squatted domains. These websites were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major US news sites like the Washington Post or Fox News. But, in fact, they were fake sites. They were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro Russian policies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and in other countries. Unfortunately, we know that Russia is not the only foreign power seeking to interfere in our elections. As the US Intelligence Community noted two weeks ago, we have observed increasingly aggressive Iranian activity during this election cycle. That includes recently reported activities by Iran to compromise former President Trump's campaign and to avoid an election outcome that it regards as against its interests. Those recently reported Iranian activities also include efforts to obtain access to individuals who themselves have access to the presidential campaigns of both political parties. The Justice Department's message is clear. We have no tolerance for attempts by authoritarian regimes to exploit our democratic system of government. We will be relentlessly aggressive, encountering and disrupting attempts by Russia and Iran, as well as China or any other foreign malign actor to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"U.S. Accuses Russia of Spreading Disinformation Before November Election","description":"The Biden administration announced wide-ranging actions Wednesday meant to call out Russian influence in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, unsealing criminal charges against two employees of a Russian state-run media company and seizing internet domains used by the Kremlin to spread disinformation.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/YvkmUM3g/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-09-04T20:03:34.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YvkmUM3g.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/YvkmUM3g/","duration":"PT4M35S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/YvkmUM3g/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```