The US Department of Justice has charged two Russians it identifies as RT employees with money laundering and working as foreign agents for their alleged role in pushing video content that sowed “discord and division” in the US.
In a criminal indictment unsealed on Wednesday, US prosecutors claimed that Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva financed and directed a Tennessee-based production company that published English-language videos to various social media platforms aimed at amplifying “domestic divisions in the United States.”
These videos were viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube alone, the indictment alleged, and, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray, represented an attempt to “trick Americans into unwittingly consuming foreign propaganda.”