US charges Russian national of funding anti-govt protests, investigation ongoing

As US-Russia relationship hits rock bottom, American authorities on Saturday charged a Russian man of conspiring to influence the 2024 Presidential polls and funding anti-administration protests. In an indictment released by the US Department of Justice, Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov was accused of influencing unnamed groups in the states of Florida, California and Georgia to further the Russian propaganda. Notably, the Kremlin has been accused of meddling with the 2016 Presidential Polls in the favor of Donald Trump, particularly by hacking into the Democratic campaign. 

“Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning U.S. political groups and U.S. citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division in a news release.

Ionov influenced multiple protests 

In Florida, Ionov funded a multi-city demonstration “in support of a ‘Petition on Crime of Genocide against African People in the United States,” and supported two of the leaders’ political campaigns. Meanwhile, in the state of California, he funded a group’s efforts in 2018 to protest against the Capitol building in Sacramento. There he also instructed the group leaders to “physically enter the governor’s office.” 

More recently, Ionov bankrolled a group’s efforts in Atlanta to fly to San Francisco and protest at an unidentified social media company’s headquarters that placed restrictions on content that supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Notably, his crimes weren’t limited to American soil. As per the indictment, he also arranged a meeting between the leader of an American influence group and his own founded group Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR) in Russia. 

DoJ said, “In September 2015, Ionov paid for an influence group leader to attend an AGMR-sponsored “Dialogue of Nations” conference in Moscow. Upon his return to Florida, he  reported to the leadership of his Political Group  that AGMR is “a solid institution of Russian politic,” and that it was “clear” that AGMR was “an instrument of [the] Russian government,” which, he wrote, did not “disturb us.” 

In the document, DoJ accused  Ionov of working for 7 years on behalf of Putin Administration to recruit and pay American groups to publish “pro-Russian Propaganda.” It said that the Russian national, over time, laid out brazen influence campaigns, sent American group leaders to Russia as well as funded Anti-administration protests in the US amongst other things. 

(Image: AP)