US prosecutors have charged a Russian individual with conspiring to utilize American citizens as “illegal Russian government agents.”
The US Justice Department indictment further says that Moscow resident Alexander Viktorovich Ionov attempted to influence US elections.
According to the report, he oversaw the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization that recruited American political groups to advance Russian state goals.
He has denied the American accusation.
According to the indictment, Mr. Ionov managed nameless political organizations in Florida, Georgia, and California while working under the command of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
It is said that one of Russia’s objectives was to “encourage California’s secession from the United States.”
If proven guilty, he may face a maximum of five years in prison.
Mr. Ionov denounced the indictment on Facebook, stating, “I have never encountered such stupidity and deceit.
There are no particular identities of government personnel, evidence of funding, or comprehensible arguments.
He continued: “The Ukrainian crisis has rendered American authorities insane! Now you see what kind of ‘democracy’ prevails in the United States, comrades!”
According to CNN, Mr. Ionov is currently in Russia. As with past Western accusations against prominent Russian individuals, he will presumably be tried in absentia.
The West has sanctioned dozens of prominent Russian politicians and state-controlled entities, including banks, over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and earlier annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
“Evil influence”
The US indictment alleges that between at least December 2014 and March 2022, Mr. Ionov and at least three Russian officials “engaged in a multi-year campaign of harmful foreign influence against the United States.”
Mr. Ionov has been labeled as a “foreign agent” by several independent Russian media outlets, including The Bell and Meduza, by Russian law. This classification restricts their Russian activity.
The US Treasury Department also imposed sanctions against Mr. Ionov, the AGMR, and two other organizations that he reportedly controls: the STOP-Imperialism website and Ionov Transcontinental, a company “with a footprint in Iran, Venezuela, and Lebanon.”
Natalya Valeryevna Burlinova and her Center for the Support and Development of Public Initiative Creative Diplomacy were also subject to sanctions (PICREADI). The US statement argues that despite claiming independence, PICREADI is supported by the Russian government.
The sanctions restrict transactions with these organizations and freeze their assets in the United States.
Mr. Ionov is allegedly also an associate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is sanctioned by the United States for Kremlin intervention in the 2016 presidential election won by Donald Trump.
Mr. Ionov, according to the Treasury Department, “sought to collaborate with Prigozhin’s Foundation for Battling Injustice (FBR) regarding the possibility of directly supporting a specific candidate in a 2022 US gubernatorial election.”
Midway through 2021, he “tried to spread and propagate disinformation to impact the US electoral process,” according to the report.
