US Sanctions Russian Media for Secretly Funding Ukraine War – Source: www.databreachtoday.com

Cyberwarfare / Nation-State Attacks
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Fraud Management & Cybercrime

Biden Administration Hits Russian Media With More Sanctions for Covert Operations

Chris Riotta (@chrisriotta) •
September 13, 2024    

Russian state media faced a new round of federal sanctions Friday after the United States accused a Kremlin news outlet of secretly orchestrating information operations and a fundraising campaign to provide support and military equipment to Russian units in Ukraine, including drones, radio equipment and diesel generators.

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State-funded RT, formerly Russia Today, secretly began a fundraising campaign across Russia to raise funds for the nation’s military, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday, while also launching covert influence operations in European countries including Germany and Moldova. Disinformation targets also included Africa and North and South America.

Executives and leadership of the Russian state news outlet RT were previously hit with sanctions in early September for influence operations targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential elections. The Department of Justice that same day indicted two Russian RT employees for illicitly bankrolling American podcasters with pro-Kremlin messages through a Tennessee front company, later identified as Tenet Media. The Biden administration said it has ongoing plans to foil Russian attempts to influence the November election outcome (see: US Targets Russian Media and Hackers Over Election Meddling).

Blinken told reporters today that U.S. officials gained new information from RT employees that revealed how the Kremlin “embedded a unit within RT with cyber capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence.”

Blinken pointed to specific sites RT launched in recent years that disseminate Russian propaganda to their viewers. They include African Stream, which has more than 460,000 subscribers on YouTube and purports to be “focused on giving a voice to all Africans both at home and abroad.”

The Biden administration Friday also announced an international effort with the United Kingdom and Canada aimed at exposing the Russian government’s global influence and electoral interference efforts. The department’s global engagement center was responsible for working with the U.K. and Canada to initially expose Russia’s operations targeting Moldova, according to a fact sheet.

The new sanctions include multiple Russian entities involved in state media and global influence operations, including RT’s parent organization, TV-Novosti. The sanctions block the targeted individuals and entities from owning or controlling any U.S. investments.

“RT wants its new covert intelligence capabilities, like its long-standing propaganda disinformation efforts, to remain hidden,” Blinken said. “Our most powerful antidote to Russia’s lies is the truth.”

The sanctions also target Rossiya Segodnya, a Russian-state funded broadcast agency accused of coordinating with the Kremlin to attempt to foment unrest in Moldova. Those operations likely had the “specific aim of causing protests to turn violent,” the fact sheet says.

Dmitry Konstantinovich Kiselev, director general of Rossiya Segodnya since 2013, was included in Friday’s sanctions along with the heads of another Russian firm that executed a scheme to move money through a U.S.-designated Promsvyazbank public joint stock company into Moldova “to buy votes to influence the upcoming Moldovan elections,” according to the State Department.

The U.S. accused RT of engaging in Russian military procurement – secretly importing equipment and supplies such as sniper rifles, body armor and night-vision devices in part sourced from the People’s Republic of China. RT’s cyber capabilities have primarily focused on influence and intelligence operations across the globe, and information-sharing channels have allegedly been established between the media outlet and Russia’s intelligence services, mercenary groups and other state and proxy arms.

The State Department said that the sanctioned entities are able to continue engaging in journalism and media operations not prohibited by U.S. sanctions and added: “Covert influence activities are not journalism.”

Updated Sept. 13, 2024 20:05 UTC: This story has been updated throughout.