Sanctions Target Russian Agitprop

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated 10 individuals and two entities as part of a coordinated U.S. government response to Moscow’s efforts to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Russian state-sponsored actors have long used a variety of tools, such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) deep fakes and disinformation, in an attempt to undermine confidence in the United States’ election processes and institutions.

Beginning in early 2024, executives at RT—Russia’s state-funded news media outlet—began an ever more nefarious effort to covertly recruit unwitting American influencers in support of their malign influence campaign. RT used a front company to disguise its own involvement or the involvement of the Russian government in content meant to influence U.S. audiences.

The Treasury designations complement law enforcement actions taken by the Department of Justice and the Department of State’s designation of the Rossiya Segodnya media group and five of its subsidiaries, RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik, as Foreign Missions, steps to impose visa restrictions, and release of a Rewards for Justice (RFJ) reward offer of up to $10 million relating to information pertaining to foreign interference in a U.S. election.

The Treasury action was in conjunction with a Federal Grand Jury indictment of two RT employees for their part in a $10 million disinformation campaign which posted nearly 2,000 videos with more than 16 million views on YouTube alone. 

According to the Treasury statement, the Kremlin has increasingly adapted its efforts to hide its involvement by developing a vast ecosystem of Russian proxy websites, fake online personas, and front organizations that give the false appearance of being independent news sources unconnected to the Russian state.

RT AND RAHDIT INFLUENCE OPERATIONS

RT, formerly Russia Today, is a Russian state-funded news outlet that began broadcasting internationally in 2005. In 2017, RT registered as an agent of a foreign government in the United States. Beginning in early 2024, RT executives began an effort to covertly recruit unwitting American influencers. RT used a front company to disguise its own involvement or the involvement of the Russian government.

OFAC designated nine individuals including the Editor-in-Chief of RT and several of her deputies who implemented a large-scale influence operation for RT on U.S. social media with the intent of obscuring RT’s connection to the content meant to influence online audiences. Starting in early 2024, an employee of RT’s Digital Media Projects Department covertly interacted with prominent U.S. social media influencers under the cover of a fake persona, purporting to be an employee at a U.S. company to obscure RT’s and the Russian government's involvement.

The pro-Kremlin hacktivist group RaHDit is composed of active and former Russian intelligence officers interacts with members of the Russian intelligence and security services, members of the Russian Presidential Administration, and employees from RT.

DOPPELGÄNGER AND RRN INFLUENCE OPERATIONS

Autonomous Non-Profit Organization (ANO) Dialog is a Russian nonprofit organization founded in 2019 by the Moscow city government that leverages AI technology in online Russian disinformation for use against election campaigns. ANO Dialog Regions is ANO Dialog’s subsidiary organization that is co-located at their Moscow headquarters and also has offices throughout Russia. 

ANO Dialog is linked to Doppelgänger—a Russia-linked influence operation network identified in 2022—that used deep fake content to develop Russian disinformation campaigns.    In July 2022, ANO Dialog and its principals provided services to the Russian government, working on a project for the creation of fake online posts on popular social media accounts, including “Reliable Recent News” (“RRN”) and “War on Fakes”—a Russian disinformation website publicly linked to the Doppelgänger activity—that would be composed of counterfeit documents, among other material, in order to elicit an emotional response from the audiences of these accounts.

An ANO Dialog advisor purchased RRN’s new domain, “rrn.world” in order to avoid using the former domain, “rrussianews.com,” which would have maintained a connection to Russia. 

In late fall 2023, ANO Dialog personnel identified U.S., UK, and other public figures as potential targets for deepfake projects. Because of this, the EU sanctioned ANO Dialog for its role in the disinformation network and specifically as the owner and operator of the “War on Fakes” website.

In May 2024, Dialog Regions officials coordinated with Russian government officials regarding the creation of bot accounts on popular social media messaging platforms for use in a misinformation campaign regarding voting locations in the U.S. 2024 election. 

Also, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the seizure of domains associated with RRN/ANO Dialog and Social Design Agency (SDA)—which OFAC had previously designated pursuant to E.O. 14024 for its activities on behalf of the Russian government—that have been used in furtherance of the Russian Doppelgänger disinformation efforts targeting the United States and Europe.