Russian legislator and 2 aides criminally charged in US

NEW YORK (AP) — A Russian legislator and two aides were charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions as they pushed a covert Russian propaganda campaign in the U.S. to win support for moves against Ukraine and other countries, an indictment unsealed Thursday said.

Three conspiracy charges were brought in an indictment in Manhattan federal court against the legislator, Aleksandr Babakov, 59, and two of his staff members — Aleksandr Nikolayevich Vorobev, 52, and Mikhail Alekseyevich Plisyuk, 58.

All three men named are based in Russia and remain at large, authorities said. Babakov currently serves as deputy chairman of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature, federal authorities said in a release.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Babakov’s actions show that Russia’s “illegitimate actions against Ukraine extend beyond the battlefield, as political influencers under Russia’s control allegedly plotted to steer geopolitical change in Russia’s favor through surreptitious and illegal means in the U.S. and elsewhere in the West.”

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said the indictment of the high-ranking legislator aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin shows that Babakov and his aides “engaged in a global campaign to influence and gain access to U.S. elected officials.”

The case is part of a concerted Justice Department crackdown against Russia, with prosecutors in recent weeks unsealing cases against an oligarch accused of sanctions violations, a tycoon charged with illegal campaign contributions and, now, a surreptitious effort to sway public opinion in the United States through the spread of propaganda.

Amid Russia’s war against Ukraine, the Justice Department also launched a task force to enforce sanctions violations and export restrictions imposed on Russian figures.

The indictment depicts an effort to reach inside the power chambers of Washington, with the defendants accused of contacting at least one member of Congress five years ago to offer free travel to a conference in Yalta that they and their associates had been working to organize and promote.

The conference was intended to support Sergey Aksyonov, the Kremlin-appointed head of Crime who had been sanctioned by the U.S. government for his policies threatening Ukraine’s sovereignty. The congressman, who is not identified by name in the indictment, declined the offer, prosecutors said.

The defendants are accused of seeking to “co-opt” American and European politicians and of recruiting an American citizen and other individuals to help advance pro-Kremlin interests.

The effort included requesting a meeting with a member of Congress to push Russia’s agenda in the United States and submitting phony visa applications to travel to the U.S. under the false pretenses of a vacation when they were actually intending to hold meetings with U.S. political figures, the indictment said. The visa applications were ultimately denied.

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Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker reported from Washington.

Eric Tucker And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press