10 months ago
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The U.S. on Friday imposed sanctions on two Russian intelligence officers who supervised two officers who were recently indicted by the Justice Department for their involvement in the Kremlin’s attempts to influence a local election in the United States.
Yegor Popov, a Russian intelligence officer, was sanctioned Friday. He served as a primary handler of Alexander Ionov, a Russian operative who was charged by the Justice Department last year with recruiting political groups in the U.S. to advance pro-Russia propaganda, including about the invasion of Ukraine.
U.S. authorities say Ionov recruited political groups in Florida, Georgia and California and directed them to spread pro-Russia talking points. Ionov, who operated an entity called the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, paid for group members to attend government-funded conferences in Russia, as well as a protest in the U.S. against social media efforts to suppress online support for the invasion.
