Federal agents on Friday raided multiple locations in Florida allegedly used by Russian operatives working to interfere with U.S. elections.
Citing special agent David Walker, who is in charge at the FBI’s Tampa office, Newsweek reported that the FBI executed search warrants at three locations in St. Petersburg, Florida, in connection with the probe of Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov.
According to local stations WTSP and WFLA, Agents were seen carrying unidentified boxes out of the location for hours.
As reported by Newsweek, the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) unsealed an indictment against Ionov on Friday and issued a news release detailing allegations that he worked on behalf of the Russian government, as well as in conjunction with Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), in “orchestrating a years-long foreign malign influence campaign that used various U.S. political groups to sow discord, spread pro-Russian propaganda, and interfere in elections within the United States.”
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“This effort, which also involved at least three Russian officials, lasted at least from December 2014 to March 2022, the DOJ said,” the report states. “It identified Ionov as a resident of the Russian capital of Moscow and the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization funded by the Russian government that he allegedly used to carry out his influence campaign.”
According to the DOJ release, Ionov recruited political groups in the U.S. and “exercised direction or control over them “on behalf of the Russian government. It did not identify these organizations by name, instead referring to them as U.S. Political Group 1, U.S. Political Group 2 and U.S. Political Group 3.
Ionov allegedly “used his control” over U.S. Political Group 1 “to spread pro-Russian propaganda under the guise of a domestic political organization, and to interfere in local elections.”
