We’ve Got that Russiagate Feeling Again! By Charles Taylor (Florida)
Hillary Clinton must be over the moon, as Russiagate looks like making its grand entrance into the 2024 US election, after being debunked from the 2016 election. The US (IN)Justice Department has seized and shutdown 32 domains it claims are part of an effort by Russia to influence the US election. The websites were being "used by the Kremlin to spread Russian propaganda and weaken global support for Ukraine." "The websites were designed to look like authentic news sites but were actually fake." The sites include obviously fake outlets like CNN California, which has a massive seven (7) followers:
https://modernity.news/2024/09/05/russian-disinformation-is-back-doj-seizes-32-internet-domains
However, there are more serious charges:
"The DOJ alleges two employees of a state-run Russian media company called Russia Today (RT) were involved in an elaborate scheme to commission a US-based company to make and distribute content with "hidden Russian government messaging".
Voices sympathetic to Russia are posing as fact-checkers in a bid to sow doubt and confusion, and to drain sympathy from a world watching the invasion of Ukraine.
Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, Russian nationals working at RT, have been charged with conspiracy to violate a foreign agent registration law and money-laundering offences.
The US government said both worked to introduce disinformation on social media targeted at US citizens, by commissioning a Tennessee-based company to create videos containing pro-Russian propaganda.
As an offshoot of an "entire empire of covert projects" designed to shape public opinion in Western democracies, the DOJ alleged RT's handiwork was designed to weaken US opposition to Russia's war in Ukraine, alongside other topics.
The US company is not accused of wrongdoing.
The DOJ alleges wire transfers totalling $US10 million ($14. 87 million) from shell companies in Turkey, the UAE and Mauritius alongside fake identities used by the two Russians were used to hide the truth — that the defendants were encouraging and directing Russian interests in commissioning the content.
The money-laundering charges carry a maximum 20-year prison sentence if convicted, but it's unlikely that either will be tried as both Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva are designated as "at large" in Russia."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-05/us-charges-russian-disinformation-rt-propaganda/104313552
As argued at the post below, the whole event seems trivial and nothing more than what goes on in politics all the time, only this time, the Democrats are not the party involved, unless this has all been cooked up:
https://vigilantnews.com/post/is-russia-really-interfering-again-glenn-greenwald-says-its-overblown/
Perhaps, making a satirical comment on all this, Vlad Putin said that he wants Kamala Harris to win in November, because of … the joy: "I told you, our favorite, if I may say so, was the current president, Mr. Biden," said Putin, smirking. "He was removed from the race, but he advised all his supporters to support Ms. Harris. So we will do it as well, we will root for her,""And if she is doing well, then … Trump introduced so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia, like no other president had ever introduced before him. And if Ms. Harris is doing well, perhaps she will refrain from doing anything like that."
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