Indictments and Raids: FBI Moves Against Fringe “Influencers” in Russia Probe

Patrick G. EddingtonOver the past several years, there ’s been a lot of media and federal government focus on alleged or actual Russian attempts to influence American domestic politics. Former Air Force linguist and analyst Reality Winner was jailed for leaking a document that showed fairly clear evidence of such Russian interference. But what about more prosaic yet classic Soviet/ ​Russian influence operations, the type where they try to get others to launder a Kremlin propaganda line?That very old tactic seems to be at the center of a federal indictmentunsealed late last week.The target, a Russian national named Aleksandr Ionov, was head of the Russian state ‐​funded Anti‐​Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), which the indictment alleges worked with “the Russian Federation (Federal’naya Sluzhba Bezopasnosti Rossiyskoy Federatsii, “FSB”)…to use members of U.S. political groups as foreign agents of Russia within the United States, wi thout notification to the Attorney General.” Foreign nationals who intend to lobby or otherwise engage politically on American soil are required to register with the Attorney General under the nearly century‐​old Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).Ionov and his FSB handlers tried to evade FARA by developing relationships with three US ‐​based organizations, which I identified through online and relatedresearch late last week as likely being the African People ’s Socialist Pa...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs