From the DOJ website:
A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, returned a superseding indictment charging four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals with working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States. Among other conduct, the superseding indictment alleges that the Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda; the indicted intelligence officers, in particular, participated in covertly funding and directing candidates for local office within the United States.
Additionally, in a separate case out of the District of Columbia, a criminal complaint was unsealed charging Russian national Natalia Burlinova with conspiring with an FSB officer to act as an illegal agent of Russia in the United States.
“Russia’s foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights – freedoms Russia denies its own citizens – to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “The department will not hesitate to expose and prosecute those who sow discord and corrupt U.S. elections in service of hostile foreign interests, regardless of whether the culprits are U.S. citizens or foreign individuals abroad.”
“Efforts by the Russian government to secretly influence U.S. elections will not be tolerated,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “As today’s announcement demonstrates, the Criminal Division is committed to eradicating foreign malign influence from the U.S. political system and helping ensure the integrity of our elections.”
“Today’s announcement paints a harrowing picture of Russian government actions and the lengths to which the FSB will go to interfere with our elections, sow discord in our nation and ultimately recruit U.S citizens to their efforts,” said Acting Assistant Director Kurt Ronnow of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “All Americans should be deeply concerned by the tactics employed by the FSB and remain vigilant to any attempt to undermine our democracy. The FBI remains committed to confronting this egregious behavior and ultimately disrupting our adversaries and those who act on their behalf.”
www.justice.gov/...
This Ionov guy was already indicted in July of 2022 on similar charges. From the BBC, back then:
Mr Ionov is also alleged to be an associate of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is under US sanctions for Kremlin interference in the 2016 presidential election won by Donald Trump.
The Treasury Department says Mr Ionov "sought to collaborate with Prigozhin's Foundation for Battling Injustice (FBR) about the feasibility of directly supporting a specific candidate in a 2022 US gubernatorial election".
It adds that in mid-2021 he "worked to disseminate and promulgate disinformation that would influence the US election process".
www.bbc.com/…
Ionov seems very much like one of the higher-ups in the Russian operation to tamper with American elections. According to the DOJ press release, Ionov said the 2020 Presidential Election was his “main topic of the year”. And if he is tight with Prigozhin, he is likely trusted by Putin. So it’s good to know that he is on our radar, even if we are unable to physically apprehend him in Moscow.
The four indicted Americans - one, the founder of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) - are all based out of Clearwater, FL, where Ionov and the FSB were boosting a favored candidate for local office.
Hopefully these charges will lead to the unmasking of similar Russian operations across America. If they found four rubes in Clearwater, FL alone, there are quite possibly hundreds of these turned fools scattered about the United States.
And the Russians are doing this in other Western countries, too.