The U.S. accuses Russia of having influence over US voters

Investigation into the Russian-directed Foreign Malign Influence Campaign Tagged as “Doppelganger” by the U.S. Department of Justice

The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday said it disrupted Russian-directed foreign malign influence campaigns it referred to as “Doppelganger,” that sought to spread Russian government propaganda.

The effort was meant to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies, and influence voters in the U.S. and elsewhere, the Justice Department said.

The Justice Department required RT’s U.S. arm to register as a foreign agent in 2017, after US intelligence officials said it was involved in Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election.

As part of the Doppelganger investigation, the DOJ said it seized 32 internet domains used in the effort, and named Russian companies Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog as being involved in the effort.

The effort involved Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, it said.

The Biden administration used Wednesday’s announcements to warn malicious actors against interfering with US elections. The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian Regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas to covertly Further its own propaganda efforts, and our investigation into this matter remains ongoing, as per the Attorney General’s statement.

In a statement on its website ahead of the charges, RT dismissed the findings, joking that their responses in an office poll included comments like “Ha!” and “2016 called and it wants its clichés back.”

The DOJ investigations of a Russian propaganda bot farm using fake news accounts and AI software to propagate Russian government propaganda in the wake of 2016 Russian-Russian elections

It’s not the first time the US has accused Russia of interfering with elections. After the 2016 election, law enforcement accused Russian agents of election interference-related crimes, including computer hacking. In 2020, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report stating that President Putin had supported an influence campaign to support Donald Trump in the White House.

“Russia remains the most active foreign threat to our elections,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told senators in May at a briefing about election risks.

The campaign, which was first identified by researchers at EU DisinfoLab in 2022 and was given the name Doppleganger, has impersonated news outlets including The Washington Post and Fox News, and it has posed as NATO, the Polish and Ukrainian governments, the German police and the French Foreign Ministry.

The people and entities sanctioned by the Treasury Department are connected to the scheme. The State Department has decided against issuing visas to people who engage in covert influence activities for media organizations supported by the Russian government.

A Microsoft report states that the campaign recently used fake French-language sites to push claims of corruption at the recent Paris Olympics and to warn of potential violence.

The bot farm was able to create fake accounts on X. Russia’s war in Ukraine and pro-Kremlin narratives were supported by the accounts. The effort and the AI software behind it were organized by an editor at RT, the Russian state-owned media outlet, the Justice Department alleged. The project was run by a Russian intelligence officer.

The US claims that the influence campaign directed by members of Russian President Putin’s inner circle created media brands or closely mimicked existing ones to spread Russian government propaganda. They also allegedly created fake social media personas of non-Russian citizens to post comments.

“This seizure illustrates vividly what the U.S. government and private sector partners have warned for months: the Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories and amplify disinformation directed at the American public,” DOJ National Security Division chief Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.