US Sanctions Russian People, Entities With Ties to Disinformation
The U.S. this week sanctioned 10 people and two entities involved in Russian government “influence operations,” including state-funded news outlets and their employees.
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The sanctions target several senior employees with RT, formerly known as Russia Today, a Russian state-funded news outlet that registered in the U.S. in 2017 as an agent of a foreign government. The sanctions target editor-in-chief Margarita Simonovna Simonyan and others, including Elizaveta Yuryevna Brodskaia, Anton Sergeyvich Anisimov, Andrey Vladimirovich Kiyashko, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Mikhaylovna Afanasyeva.
OFAC also designated Aleksey Alekseyevich Garashchenko, head of the pro-Kremlin hacktivist group RaHDit, and his affiliates Anastasia Igorevna Yermoshkina and Aleksandr Vitalyevich Nezhentsev. The agency said RaHDit works with RT.
The agency sanctioned Autonomous Non-Profit Organization Dialog, and its subsidiary, Autonomous Non-Profit Organization Dialog Regions, which used artificial intelligence technology to promote Russian disinformation in election campaigns. OFAC sanctioned Vladimir Grigoryevich Tabak for being the director general of both organizations.
OFAC also updated a general license authorizing certain communications-related transactions with Russia. General License 25E, which replaces 25D, now includes Autonomous Non-Profit Organization Dialog and Autonomous Non-Profit Organization Dialog Regions.