September 05, 2024 | 00.08
READING TIME: 2 minutes
Russia Tries to Influence US Elections on November 5, Washington Responds with New Sanctions targeting Vladimir Putin’s ‘megaphones’. The measures target Russian entities and individuals, including Russia Today, the Kremlin-affiliated broadcaster, for “their malicious efforts to influence” the November elections.
The US Treasury Department has imposed restrictive measures against 10 personalities, including RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonovna Simonyan, one of the ‘stars’ of Russian TV who hammers away on the war in Ukraine every day, and deputy Elizaveta Yuryevna Brodskaya. The broadcaster is accused of secretly recruiting “unwitting American influencers” to support its “influence campaign”.
In a statement, the US State Department announced it was taking steps to counter “malign operations by Kremlin-backed media outlets seeking to influence or interfere in the 2024 US elections.”
“Moscow’s methods of striking those it identifies as adversaries are well known. – Foggy Bottom recalls – from the illegal and unjustified invasion of sovereign nations to the unjust detention of innocent people, from cyberattacks to interference in foreign elections, to the conduct of sham elections in the territories of Ukraine controlled by Russia”.
The department then accuses RT of “contracting with a private company to pay millions of dollars to unwitting Americans to convey the Kremlin’s message to influence American elections and undermine democracy…and RT’s leadership has direct and knowing knowledge of this venture.”
Denouncing “the lengths some foreign governments go to undermine America’s democratic institutions,” the State Department assures that the United States “will not tolerate malign foreign actors intentionally interfering in and undermining free and fair elections. The United States will continue to expose state-sponsored actors who seek to undermine our democratic institutions and hold them accountable for their actions.”
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