{
	"id": "99aea275-7ae4-4966-b53a-78ce9ac793e8",
	"created_at": "2026-04-06T00:09:55.359668Z",
	"updated_at": "2026-04-10T03:20:40.670381Z",
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	"sha1_hash": "0ba768a219c77460a4db74b8a36b21dc78cfbf6e",
	"title": "Justice Department Disrupts Covert Russian Government-Sponsored Foreign Malign Influence Operation Targeting Audiences in the United States and Elsewhere",
	"llm_title": "",
	"authors": "",
	"file_creation_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
	"file_modification_date": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z",
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	"plain_text": "Justice Department Disrupts Covert Russian Government-Sponsored Foreign Malign Influence Operation Targeting\r\nAudiences in the United States and Elsewhere\r\nPublished: 2024-09-04 · Archived: 2026-04-05 21:21:19 UTC\r\nNote: View the affidavit here. \r\nThe Justice Department today announced the ongoing seizure of 32 internet domains used in Russian government-directed foreign malign influence campaigns colloquially referred to as “Doppelganger,” in violation of U.S.\r\nmoney laundering and criminal trademark laws. As alleged in an unsealed affidavit, the Russian companies Social\r\nDesign Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog, operating under the direction\r\nand control of the Russian Presidential Administration, and in particular First Deputy Chief of Staff of the\r\nPresidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, used these domains, among others, to covertly\r\nspread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in U.S. and foreign elections, including the U.S. 2024\r\nPresidential Election.  \r\nIn conjunction with the domain seizures, the U.S. Treasury Department announced the designation\r\nof 10 individuals and two entities as part of a coordinated response to Russia’s malign influence efforts targeting\r\nthe 2024 U.S. presidential election. This announcement follows the designation of actors involved in\r\nDoppelganger announced\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\nby the Treasury Department in March.\r\n“The Justice Department is seizing 32 internet domains that the Russian government and Russian government-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere in and influence the outcome of our\r\ncountry’s elections,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “As alleged in our court filings, President\r\nVladimir Putin’s inner circle, including Sergei Kiriyenko, directed Russian public relations companies to promote\r\ndisinformation and state-sponsored narratives as part of a campaign to influence the 2024 U.S. Presidential\r\nElection. An internal planning document created by the Kremlin states that a goal of the campaign is to secure\r\nRussia’s preferred outcome in the election. The sites we are seizing today were filled with Russian government\r\npropaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian\r\npolicies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and other countries. Our actions today make clear\r\nthat the Justice Department will be aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by the Russian government,\r\nor any other malign actor, to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy.”\r\n“The Department’s seizure of 32 internet domains secretly deployed to spread foreign malign influence\r\ndemonstrates once again that Russia remains a predominant foreign threat to our elections,” said Deputy Attorney\r\nGeneral Lisa Monaco. “At Putin’s direction, Russian companies SDA, Structura, and ANO Dialog used\r\ncybersquatting, fabricated influencers, and fake profiles to covertly promote AI-generated false narratives on\r\nsocial media. Those narratives targeted specific American demographics and regions in a calculated effort to\r\nsubvert our election. Our republic depends on elections that are free from foreign interference, and we will not rest\r\nin our efforts to expose foreign malign influence operations and protect our democracy, without fear or favor.”\r\n“Today’s announcement exposes the scope of the Russian government’s influence operations and their reliance on\r\ncutting-edge AI to sow disinformation,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Companies operating at the\r\ndirection of the Russian government created websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian\r\npropaganda.  By seizing these websites, the FBI is making clear to the world what they are, Russian attempts to\r\ninterfere in our elections and influence our society.  The FBI will continue to work with our partners to expose and\r\nshutdown these covert influence campaigns.”\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\n“This seizure illustrates vividly what the U.S. government and private sector partners have warned for months: the\r\nRussian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories\r\nand amplify disinformation directed at the American public,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen\r\nof the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “Today’s announcement reveals Russia is willing to\r\nimpersonate our free and open press in its egregious schemes. This is our third disruption of Russian foreign\r\nmalign influence operations in two months, and the Justice Department remains relentless in protecting Americans\r\nfrom such unacceptable conduct. To Russia, and any other government seeking to stoke discord in our society:\r\nknow that we will spare no effort and use every available tool to disrupt and expose this malign activity and\r\ndefend our democratic institutions.”\r\n“Protecting our democratic processes from foreign malign influence is paramount to ensure enduring public trust,”\r\nsaid U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “As America’s adversaries\r\ncontinue to spew propaganda and disinformation towards the American electorate, we’ll use every tool at our\r\ndisposal to expose and dismantle their insidious foreign influence campaigns.”\r\nThe propaganda did not identify, and in fact purposefully obfuscated, the Russian government or its agents as the\r\nsource of the content. The perpetrators extensively utilized “cybersquatted” domains, a method of registering a\r\ndomain intended to mimic another person or company’s website (e.g., registering washingtonpost.pm to mimic\r\nwashingtonpost.com), to publish Russian government messaging falsely presented as content from legitimate\r\nnews media organizations. In other instances, the perpetrators sought to create their own unique media brands to\r\npromote Doppelganger content (e.g., Recent Reliable News). Among the methods Doppelganger used to drive\r\nviewership to the cybersquatted and unique media domains was the deployment of “influencers” worldwide, paid\r\nsocial media advertisements (in some cases created using artificial intelligence tools), and the creation of social\r\nmedia profiles posing as U.S. (or other non-Russian) citizens to post comments on social media platforms with\r\nlinks to the cybersquatted domains, all of which attempted to trick viewers into believing they were being directed\r\nto a legitimate news media outlet’s website.\r\nOverview\r\nThe affidavit describes the perpetrators’ own internal strategy meeting notes, project proposals, and other records\r\nobtained during the course of the investigation. Several notable propaganda project proposals directed against the\r\nUnited States included:\r\nGood Old USA Project: Attachments 8A, 8B\r\nThe Guerilla Media Campaign: Attachments 9A, 9B\r\nU.S. Social Media Influencers Network Project: Attachments 10A, 10B\r\nDoppelganger’s foreign malign influence efforts were not directed solely against audiences in the United States.\r\nOther targets of the perpetrators’ propaganda included Germany, Mexico, and Israel, among others.\r\nDoppelganger’s influence campaigns sought to influence the citizenry of those countries to support Russian\r\ngovernment objectives, including by undermining the United States’ relationship with those countries.\r\nDoppelganger’s use of the U.S.-based domain names at the direction and control of, and for the benefit of,\r\nsanctioned persons, including Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, SDA, and Structura, violates the International\r\nEmergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). As a result, the accompanying payments for Doppelganger’s online\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\ninfrastructure violate federal money laundering laws. In addition, Doppelganger’s publication of content on\r\ncybersquatted domains with names and content that mimic legitimate media outlets violates federal criminal\r\ntrademark laws because those domains feature trademarks registered on the Principal Register maintained by the\r\nU.S. Patent and Trademark Office.\r\nThe FBI Philadelphia Field Office is investigating the case.\r\nThe U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the National Security Division’s\r\nCounterintelligence and Export Control Section and National Security Cyber Section are prosecuting the case,\r\nwith valuable assistance from the Criminal Division’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.\r\nSource: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence\r\nPage 4 of 4",
	"extraction_quality": 1,
	"language": "EN",
	"sources": [
		"ETDA"
	],
	"references": [
		"https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence"
	],
	"report_names": [
		"justice-department-disrupts-covert-russian-government-sponsored-foreign-malign-influence"
	],
	"threat_actors": [],
	"ts_created_at": 1775434195,
	"ts_updated_at": 1775791240,
	"ts_creation_date": 0,
	"ts_modification_date": 0,
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