United States imposes sanctions on Simonyan and Russian hackers for interfering in presidential election
The United States of America has imposed sanctions against the leadership of the Russian propaganda channel RT and the hacker group RaHDit for interfering in the 2024 presidential election.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to the US Department of the Treasury.
The US Treasury Department said that at the beginning of the year, RT's management began recruiting American officials for its campaign to influence the presidential election in the country - in addition to spreading fakes and disinformation.
"RT used a fake campaign to conceal its own involvement or that of the Russian government in creating content designed to influence the American audience," the ministry said.
The sanctions were imposed on RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonian, her deputies Elizaveta Brodskaya and Anton Anisimov, deputy director of English-language broadcasting Andrei Kiyashko, digital media project manager Konstantin Kalashnikov and his subordinate Elena Afanasyeva.
It is noted that Anisimov is acting on behalf of the Russian Federal Security Service, and Afanasyeva was a front person who tried to reach and recruit American officials.
The sanctions also target members of the pro-Kremlin hacker group RaHDit, which consists of current and former Russian intelligence officers: Alexei Garashchenko, Anastasia Yermoshkina, and Alexander Nezhentsev. They also apply to the Russian autonomous non-profit organization (ANO) Dialog, which is linked to the Russian influence operation Doppleganger, its subsidiary ANO Dialog Regions, and the heads of both of these companies, Vladimir Tabak.
