Russia dismisses charges of election meddling; Putin claims he backs Harris

The Kremlin on Thursday denied attempts to influence the American election after the U.S. Justice Department indicted two employees of state-owned RT network, alleging a covert operation to influence public opinion and sow social divisions through Russian propaganda.

The Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned 10 Russians and two Russian entities over malign efforts to influence the November election, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland described Russian and other foreign disinformation as “a bigger threat than it ever was before.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the indictments as “nonsense.”

He accused the United States of repressing journalists to quash a “truth” that it did not like. “This is not the first time that Russia has been blamed for interfering into America’s elections,” Peskov said in a message answering questions from The Washington Post. “Well of course it’s nonsense. We’re not interfering.”

“Our media are doing their job. They’re just reporting. They’re reporting the truth, but unfortunately Americans do not like uncomfortable truth for them, and should it appear, they immediately implement repressions against it. This is the reality.”

Peskov’s statement comes against a backdrop of Russia’s own practice of jailing journalists, dissidents, activists and ordinary citizens posting about the war in Ukraine or criticizing the regime.

As Peskov denied election interference, President Vladimir Putin claimed to be supporting Vice President Kamala Harris in the race - despite the revelations from one of the indictments and a related set of charges that linked Russia’s efforts to supporting the Republican Party in the election.

“We had Biden as a favorite, but he was dropped from the race. He recommended that all his supporters should back Harris, so we will, too,” Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East.

Harris “has such an infectious laugh that it says she’s doing well,” Putin said, adding that as a result she might refrain from sanctioning Russia.

The Justice Department on Wednesday unsealed a 32-page federal indictment accusing the two RT employees, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, of conducting a money-laundering operation that spent nearly $10 million on efforts to covertly influence American public opinion, notably blaming Ukraine for the war with Russia.

In a separate legal action, U.S. prosecutors seized 32 Russian-controlled internet domains that were used in a state-controlled operation called “Doppelganger” to undermine international support for Ukraine and promote its preferred outcome in the U.S. presidential election.

The 277-page indictment over the Doppelganger campaign contains documents previously reported on by The Washington Post. The documents show that Kremlin first deputy chief of staff Sergei Kiriyenko directed a network of political strategists to promote American isolationism, stir fear over the United States’ border security and attempt to amplify U.S. economic and racial tensions to undermine support for Ukraine.

The indictment includes additional documents by the same political strategists clearly showing the Kremlin campaign aims to bolster support for Moscow’s preferred political party, redacted as “U.S. Political Party A.” The earlier documents reported on by The Post make clear that this is the Republican Party.

One, titled “The Good Old USA Project,” states that the goal is “to secure victory of U.S. Political Party A candidate (Candidate A or one of his current internal party opponents) at the US Presidential elections to be held in November of 2024.”

The Treasury and State departments on Wednesday also announced sanctions on Russian individuals and entities it accused of “malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election.” Among them was one of the Kremlin’s most prominent propagandists, RT editor in chief Margarita Simonyan.

Peskov said Russia would develop retaliatory measures in response to the sanctioning of Russian state media. He said the measures could not be symmetrical but that decisions would be made soon regarding the spread of U.S. media news in Russia.

Russia’s foreign propaganda and disinformation operations play an increasing important role in Putin’s efforts to rebuild Russia as a great global power, amplifying divisions in the West and winning support in the Global South where pro-Kremlin narratives have gained significant traction. A key objective of the operations has been to weaken military support for Ukraine.

Another of the documents in the Doppelganger indictment lays out the Kremlin strategists’ plans to create a “U.S. Social Media Influencers Network” that would give explicit support for the Republican Party and some of its members’ stances questioning assistance for Ukraine.

“The U.S. Political Party A is currently advancing a relatively pro-Russian agenda. That could be exploited by posing as ardent U.S. Political Party A and relaying the part of their agenda that coincides with ours,” the document states. “One example would be the financial and military support to Ukraine.”

Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials from Putin down have spoken openly of an “information war” being waged between Russia and the West, while denying interference in the politics of foreign countries.

But a 2019 report by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III found that Russia launched an information war that included interference in the 2016 elections to boost Trump’s candidacy, and efforts have continued to spread Kremlin propaganda narratives that sow doubt and disinformation in the West.

In sanctioning Simonyan and others, the Treasury Department described her as “a central figure in Russian government malign influence efforts.”

When the news broke, Simonyan posted on Telegram: “Oh. They woke up!” She followed up with another post, “Great work, team.”

Despite Kremlin denials of interference, Simonyan has frequently boasted on state television about RT’s ongoing efforts to sow pro-Kremlin narratives in the United States. Peskov did not answer a question on the apparent contradiction between the Kremlin’s position and Simonyan’s statements.

In a March interview, Simonyan described how RT created hundreds of information outlets, opening new ones whenever U.S. authorities shuttered them, in what she called an “information war.”

“We create many sources of information that are not tied to us. While the CIA tries to figure out that they’re tied to us, they already have an enormous audience. Sometimes they find them and close them down,” she said.

“It happens with us that you wake up in the morning and 600 channels are gone, immediately. But while they’re closing them, we’ve already made new ones. This is how we chase each other. It’s even fun.”

“War is not fun, but with an information war you can have fun,” she added, laughing heartily.

In a January interview she said it was “too optimistic” to hope that the United States was on the edge of a civil war or social collapse, adding that Russia has to face the prospect of America leading the world “like an elephant in a china shop” for many years to come.

“We, without question, have seriously destabilized this china shop. I mean this ridiculous, illogical, egotistical and unjust world order that has existed since 1991 after the disintegration of the Soviet Union,” she said referring to Russia’s view of U.S. global hegemony.

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David Nakamura contributed to this report.