The indictment of Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov reflects what US officials say are the Russian government’s ongoing efforts to interfere in the US political process, shape public opinion and sow discord and dissent on hot-button social issues. In that case, authorities say, Ionov has for about the past decade recruited political groups in Florida, Georgia and California and led them to spread pro-Russian talking points. He also paid for members of the group to attend government-sponsored conferences in Russia, as well as a protest in the US against social media efforts to suppress online support for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the indictment says. “As court documents show, Ionov allegedly orchestrated a brazen influence campaign, turning US political groups and US citizens into instruments of the Russian government,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, head of the department’s national security division. Justice. Ionov worked under the supervision of Russia’s Federal Security Service, or FSB — which conducts domestic intelligence and counterintelligence activities — and reported his activities to agency contacts, prosecutors say. He is the founder and chairman of the Russian Anti-Globalization Movement, a Moscow-based group that prosecutors say is funded by the Russian government and supports a fully sovereign Russia. The indictment, in federal court in Tampa, charges him with conspiring to have American citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government. It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. Ionov is not currently in custody and appears unlikely to ever stand trial in the US, but the indictment is intended to warn Americans about the scope of foreign influence operations and send a message to Russia that the US government is aware of its actions . Separately on Friday, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Ionov, accusing him of efforts to “manipulate and destabilize the United States and its allies and partners.” The indictment does not name any of the organizations that Ionov recruited, but describes one of them as a St. Petersburg, Florida group whose leaders knew that Ionov and his group were agents of a foreign government. Prosecutors say Ionov in 2015 asked the group to write a petition alleging the US had committed genocide against Africans in the Americas and send it to the United Nations, the White House and change.org. The document, titled “Petition to the United Nations on the Crime of Genocide Against Africans in the United States,” notes the history of slavery and the denial of civil rights for black Americans. It argues that the US government continues to fail “to protect our health and well-being as expected as full citizens” and is subjecting us to “state or state-sponsored violence and terror.” The petition, which is still available online, is being attributed to the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, a black international socialist organization. Spokesmen for the group said the FBI raided their center in St. Petersburg on Friday. Akile Anai, who describes herself as the African People’s Socialist Party’s director of mobilization and propaganda, said agents searched her car and took her cellphone and laptop on Friday, in addition to raiding Uhuru. Anai said her organization had never received money from Ionov or any other member of Russian intelligence. Members of the Uhuru movement first met Ionov in Russia when they were invited to an anti-globalization conference, and Anai said she also had contact with Ionov via email and also a webinar after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as “we were getting the one side of the story about Russia and Ukraine”. Officials alleged Friday that Ionoff tried to infiltrate local politics by endorsing members of the group for office. In 2017, the group ran candidates for mayor and city council and again in 2019 for a city council race. The candidates lost. Money received by campaigns outside the US was returned, Anai said. “Their case is that these were Russian campaigns. It’s a really offensive statement,” Anai said. “It was the black community that ran the campaigns for our own interests. It’s an offensive notion that black people can’t do anything for us.” Prosecutors say Ionoff also controlled a separate organization in California that promoted the state’s secession from the rest of the US and helped finance a 2018 demonstration at the state capitol building. According to the indictment, he sent news coverage about the secessionist movement in California to one of his FSB contacts and said the officer had asked for “a disturbance” and “there you go.” More recently, prosecutors say, Ionoff paid for members of an anonymous Georgia group to fly from Atlanta to San Francisco to participate in a protest outside a California social media company that had placed content restrictions on posts that support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The case is part of a much broader Justice Department crackdown on foreign influence operations aimed at shaping public opinion in the U.S. In 2018, for example, the Justice Department charged 13 Russian nationals with participating in a massive but covert social media campaign that intended to sow discord. during the 2016 presidential election won by Republican Donald Trump. Russian government officials and state media often highlight anti-government protests in the US and other Western countries, commenting strongly on political and social discord, race riots, labor protests and mass shootings. Officials contrast the events in the US with what they claim is a lack of such unrest in Russia. FBI Special Agent in Charge David Walker in Tampa called the latest Russian efforts “some of the most egregious and egregious violations we’ve seen.” “The Russian intelligence threat is constant and unrelenting,” Walker said. “Today’s actions must act as a deterrent.”
Snyder reported from Orlando. Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report.
