Russian business person and political leader Alexander Babakov on February 22, 2021, in Moscow, Russia.
Mikhail Svetlov|Getty Images
The Department of Justice charged a high-ranking Russian lawmaker and 2 of his staffers with running a yearslong plan to affect U.S. authorities market disinformation to advance the Kremlin’s interests, according to court files revealed Thursday.
The 3 Russians, who have actually formerly been approved by the U.S., worked to weaken America’s worldwide alliances and policies and “promote Russia’s illicit actions designed to destroy the sovereignty of Ukraine,” declared an indictment submitted in federal court in Manhattan.
Their plan consisted of “staged events, paid propaganda, and the recruitment of at least one American citizen to do their bidding in unofficial capacities,” the indictment declared.
Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Babakov, 59, Aleksandr Nikolayevich Vorobev, 52, and Mikhail Alekseyevich Plisyuk, 58, are each charged with conspiring to serve as Russian representatives in the U.S. without informing the chief law officer and conspiring to devote visa scams.
“Today’s indictment demonstrates that Russia’s illegitimate actions against Ukraine extend beyond the battlefield, as political influencers under Russia’s control allegedly plotted to steer geopolitical change in Russia’s favor through surreptitious and illegal means in the United States and elsewhere in the West,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated in a news release from the Justice Department.
“Such malign foreign interference will be exposed, and we will pursue justice against its perpetrators,” Williams stated.
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